H2O: New Tides
by Cerulaen
Summary: In the world of H2O: Just Add Water, a new Moonpool is explored in Santa Barbara, California. After Daquiri Laurens finds herself thrust into a new underwater world, she discovers she must turn to making new friends to cope with having one foot on land and one fin in the sea.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** So people aren't confused and pronouncing it like the alcoholic drink in their head, Daquiri's name is pronounced duh-KEER-ree. I made it up, so...but I promise all the other names are real names. Or nicknames.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 1| CHANGES**

Daquiri stared out the window of the car as they passed by the unfamiliar scenery on the way to Arroyo Elementary. Farther north, at this time in the seasons, it would've been colder and almost all the leaves would have already fallen. But in southern California, it was like it was still the middle of summer. It was great, actually, but under the circumstances, she couldn't really enjoy it.

"Are we almost there?" Fox asked, bouncing excitedly in the back seat.

Daquiri twisted in her seat to look at her little brother. "We'll be there in a minute, Fox." She glanced at Arak at the wheel before looking back at Fox. "Do you remember everything we told you this morning?"

Fox slowly tacked off a list on his fingers, his eyebrows scrunching like he was thinking really hard. "Um…don't get in fights…don't eat glue…" he glanced up, "…or paper…"

Daquiri tried to suppress a smile at that, not wanting to encourage him. She knew Arak was grinning out of Fox's view, though.

"Ri," Fox said, scooching forward in his seat as far as the seatbelt would allow, "why can't I go to school with you and Arak?"

"Because you're seven, Fox. You're not old enough to go to our school, bud." She reached out a hand and wiggled his knee back and forth. "But don't worry. You'll make all sorts of new friends here. You'll be so busy playing with them, you won't even _think_ about Arak and me." She smiled. "It'll be like we're invisible. We just won't be able to compete."

Fox giggled at that idea, though knowing she was joking. All the same, it seemed to help him to forget his troubles.

"And here we are," Arak announced, pulling into the elementary parking lot and rolling to a stop at the curb near the front entrance. He turned around to face Fox as well. "Time to go, buddy," he said cheerfully.

Part of her little brother's expression still read excited, but she could tell he was also a bit unsure. She unbuckled her seatbelt. "C'mon, Fox, I'll make sure you're all set," she said before getting out of the passenger side door. Fox followed suit a bit more slowly, taking his time with his belt buckle and carefully sliding out of the car when Daquiri opened the door for him. She knelt down next to him and made sure his backpack straps were adjusted correctly, and he silently stood still for her, which was a tad unusual for him. For all he was a lover of everything and everyone, as his big sister, she could tell he was nervous, despite his excitement earlier.

"Hey," she said softly, smoothing down his spiky red hair, only to have it stick up again. "There's a note for you in your lunch, and I left you a little surprise in there." She tweaked his cheek. "If you start to feel lonely, just remember I'll be thinking of you all day,"

"All day?" he repeated.

" _All_ day," she confirmed with a smile. "Okay? Now give me a hug and kiss goodbye."

Without needing further bidding, Fox hugged her tightly around the neck and gave her a peck on the cheek, and she kissed his forehead in return. She stood up and gave him a shooing motion.

"You remember where your classroom is, bud. Go and get 'em!"

Giving her one last look, her little brother turned around and ran off to the front doors, mixing in with the other kids heading to their classrooms. With a sigh, Daquiri got back in the car.

Arak didn't say anything until he'd put the car back in gear and they'd driven out of the parking lot and back onto the road.

"I don't know how you do it with him," he said with a slight chuckle.

Daquiri frowned. "Someone should've been able to bring him to class on his first day at a new school," she replied, not really addressing Arak's attempt at making her feel better. Like she could tell when something was wrong with Fox, Arak could almost always sense when she was troubled.

When her older brother didn't reply right away, she leaned an elbow against the window pane of the car and propped her chin against her hand, looking back out the window with a brooding expression. "That kid deserves the world."

She heard Arak give a big sigh. "I know, Ri," he said, his voice lower.

There were several beats of silence between them.

"You should try to think about something else for once," he finally lingered to say. "I'm sure you're _super_ excited about going to a new school yourself." There was a cautiously teasing tone to his voice.

Daquiri shot her brother a look. "I can hardly express my excitement in words," she deadpanned.

"You'll survive," Arak said with a chuckle, shaking his head. "Just make sure you write down a list of guys that try to hit on you so I can go hit on them." His voice was mostly teasing, but there was an edge of seriousness to it that she knew all too well.

She rolled her eyes. "I think I'll be able to handle it, Arak."

He gave a slight chortle. "Yeah, I know how you'll _handle_ it," he said with a snort. "Just try not to get sent to the office at this school."

" _You're_ one to talk," she retorted. "You were just talking about punching people's lights out."

Arak laughed. "Yeah, well, I've had a good teacher."

Daquiri's head whipped to look at her brother in angry disbelief at the same time that Arak seemed to realize what he had just said. His eyes widened.

"Ri, I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"Just shut up, Arak," she snapped, turning away from him.

"Ri, you know I would never—"

" _Shut up, Arak_."

He quieted after that.

They rode on in silence the rest of the way to school.

When Arak parked in the space they'd been assigned in the lot, Daquiri immediately shoved the door open and slammed it behind her, shouldering her book bag and heading for the front entrance. She didn't slow down even when she heard the car engine quickly get cut off, followed by a succession of another door slam and rushed footsteps behind her.

"Ri!" Arak called as he caught up to her. She sped up her pace, but he caught up her wrist and pulled her sideways to face him.

Being unable to tug her hand away, she rounded on him. " _What?_ " she snapped vehemently. "Did you wanna give a demonstration on what your _teacher_ showed you?"

"You know I didn't mean it like that, Ri," he said, his voice soft but serious.

"But you still _said it_ , Arak," she reiterated, unable to keep the anger out of her voice.

"I know, I wasn't thinking. And I'm sorry."

Frowning, she looked away.

"Aw, c'mon, Ri," he pushed, taking her by the shoulders. "Don't be mad at me. We're trying to stick together as a family, remember?"

Daquiri rolled her eyes and shoved his hands away from her. "Don't you play _that_ card," she said as she turned and started walking again.

But Arak seemed to know she was relenting. He fell in step with her, slinging his arm around her waist. "You know you can't stay mad at me."

Daquiri snorted. "Oh, you wanna bet?"

Arak grinned. "You know you'll lose any bet when it comes to the Tickle Monster."

Daquiri shot him a warning look. "Arak, don't you dare—"

But before she could move away, her brother picked her up, book bag and all, and ran. He was the only one in the _world_ who knew her ticklish spots, and he took full advantage of this fact.

"I am going to _kill_ you," she gasped around the inevitable giggles that escaped her. She wasn't the giggling type. She _really_ wasn't the giggling type.

"I think you'll have a hard time killing me up there," he laughed, though he started slowing down a bit.

"Arak, put me _down_."

Her brother was still laughing when he set her down, and she shoved him away.

"You idiot," she grumbled, punching him in the arm.

"You've forgotten the meaning of fun, Ri," Arak said with a smirk.

"And I suppose your idea of fun is making every person in this school think we're dating?"

"Well hey, that'll fix your boy problems, right?" Arak joked.

Daquiri rolled her eyes. "You're impossible."

"That's code for 'I love you,' right?"

Despite the irritated vibes Daquiri was sending out, Arak really was one out of the only two people she even _liked_ , let alone loved—the other one being Fox. With them being her brothers, though, she wasn't sure if they counted.

She and Arak walked the rest of the way to the entrance in companionable silence.

"Well, I'll see you later," Arak said when they reached the doors.

"Yup," she replied, giving a little wave goodbye. Her brother smiled at her before melting into the mass of kids clogging the hallways.

With a sigh, Daquiri straightened. Well. Here went nothing.

Now to see if she could get away finding her classes without having a guide…

She was glad she had 15 minutes before the bell rang, since it took her almost 12 to find her homeroom.

The rest of the kids in the class all seemed to be talking with each other or fooling around when she walked in. Walking up to the desk in the corner of the room, she stood there for a moment until she was forced to get the teacher's attention.

"I'm new. Should I sit somewhere specific?"

The teacher looked up with a bit of a surprise. "Oh! Are you Daquiri Laurens?"

"Unless you have other new students coming in today," she replied dryly, "yes."

"Well, we're glad to have you," she said brightly. Everything about her sunshiny personality screamed 'new teacher.' "I don't have the students sit in any certain order, but…" The teacher paused as she looked around. "You can sit next to Christopher over there." The teacher gestured over to the other side of the room. "He's the tall boy sitting and reading."

Daquiri had to wonder how it would be apparent that anyone was tall while sitting down, but when she looked over at who the teacher was indicating, she discovered that she had thought too soon. Even sitting down, this Christopher guy looked like a giant.

Just then the bell rang, and a lot of the kids started moving towards their seats, though many just kept right on talking where they were.

This was the part of being new that she hated the most.

"Alright everyone, class is starting!" Mrs.—actually, Daquiri couldn't remember her name from her schedule—called out. Daquiri shifted the weight on her feet apprehensively, debating just going and sitting down so she wasn't standing up there with everyone staring at her. Before she could move, however, Mrs. Teacher touched her lightly on the shoulder for a moment. Daquiri tried not to bristle at the contact.

"We have a new student who just moved here—this is Daquiri."

Daquiri glanced around the class and pressed her lips together for an awkward moment, tapping her fingers against the strap of her book bag once. Again. Awkward.

The teacher smiled. "Would you like to tell a little about yourself or anything, Daquiri?"

Daquiri glanced between the rest of the class and the teacher before raising an eyebrow at her. "Not really."

There were some snickers throughout the class at that, and Mrs. Teacher gave a bit of a laugh. "Alright, then I guess we can get straight to learning, hmm?" She gestured to the seat she had indicated earlier, like Daquiri would've already forgotten where it was.

As she made her way to her seat, she definitely regretted not just sitting down right away. She hated the way everyone stared at her. Well, except the Christopher guy, who still had his nose in his book. When she sat down next to him he glanced over at her for a moment, gave a quick smile, she supposed in welcome, before going back to reading. He couldn't have gotten much farther in his book, though, as the teacher started up with the day's lesson then.

Getting out a pencil and folder full of loose leaf, she straightened them neatly on her desk before resting her chin on a hand to stare up at the front of the classroom. She resisted the urge to heave a sigh.

Only seven more hours of this to go.

* * *

Daquiri didn't manage to get herself lost until fourth hour.

The extra-curricular classes like P.E. and music always seemed to be the rooms that were most out of the way and hard to find, and she wasn't having much better luck finding the art room. She'd been pretty surprised to learn Arroyo Burro High School even _had_ an art program, considering most schools nowadays seemed to have cut them out. Her old school hadn't had one, so this was about the only reason she'd been even a _little_ excited to come here.

But even then, she still wasn't all that stoked.

She was pretty resigned to thinking that she'd just have to go back to the office to figure out where it was at this point, since she had about thirty seconds until the bell rang. She didn't really mind being late to class, it was just back to the uncomfortableness of staring strangers arriving late produced that she wasn't looking forward to.

Before she could gather her bearings to find her way back to the front of the school, however, she found herself lurching forward as she was shoved into from behind. The wall saved her from falling, but her books weren't so lucky. She swore under her breath as the few books and papers she'd been carrying scattered to the floor. She knelt down to pick them up.

"Ack! I'm sorry!"

Daquiri looked up to see another girl bending down to help. She had to blink to make sure she was seeing correctly, though.

The girl was probably the oddest sight she'd ever seen.

Or really, her hair was. It was styled into long dreadlocks, which wouldn't have been altogether all that odd, except for that each strand was dyed in a separate color to make a mass of aquamarine blue, sea foam green, bubblegum pink, tangerine orange and coral. Some of the dreads were twisted around each other to make multi-colored spirals, and it was literally the most bizarre thing Daquiri had ever laid eyes on.

To the point where she kind of forgot to listen to whatever the girl was babbling about.

"—and I'm always such a klutz, especially when I'm late for class. I guess you're late for class, too. Wait, are you new here? I know like, everyone here. Well, sort of…"

Staring at the girl, Daquiri blinked again. Um.

"…I'm looking for the art room."

The girl seemed to brighten at that. "Oh! You're in art, too? That's where I'm going!" Rainbow Dread Girl stood up with the other half of her stuff. "C'mon, I'll show you where it is!"

Since the girl started bouncily trotting off down the hallway with her things, Daquiri didn't have much choice but to follow her.

"So what's your name?" Dreadlock Girl asked when Daquiri caught up with her.

For whatever reason, that always seemed to be her least favorite question to answer, as unreasonable as it was. But she supposed the girl _was_ taking the liberty of helping her.

"It's—"

The bell ringing interrupted her. Great.

"Quick! Run!" the girl squealed and, before Daquiri could protest, grabbed her hand and practically sprinted down the rest of the hall. Daquiri almost fell over when Rainbow Dreads halted in front of a door.

What the heck was _wrong_ with this—

"In here!" the girl chirped before swinging open the wooden door with a flourish. She pulled Daquiri inside. "We are not late!" she announced. "It is still eleven-thirty-five!" Dreadlock Girl paused to look at the clock on the wall. "I think anyway."

Daquiri tried to willfully force the color rising to her cheeks back down as pretty much every head in the art studio turned towards them at the crazy girl's outburst.

Simply being late probably would've been better.

"Were you kind enough to show our new student to class, Gypsy?" the teacher asked, eyebrows raised though there was a smile in her eyes.

 _Gypsy?_ Was that some kind of nickname?

"Yes, ma'am," Gypsy grinned. Much to Daquiri's chagrin, Gypsy splayed out her arms toward her in a displaying motion and started to announce to the class, "This is—" Then she paused, seeming to realize something. "Wait, what's your name?"

Daquiri wanted to bang her head against the wall. Or maybe Gypsy's.

"…Daquiri," she said through her teeth.

"—Daquiri!" Gypsy finished for the class's benefit. Then she turned to the teacher. "Can she sit with me, Mrs. Adams?"

 _Pleasesaynopleasesaynopleasesayno—_

"Go ahead," Mrs. Adams said with a smile. "You can explain to Daquiri what we're doing."

Great.

"Oh, and welcome," she said to Daquiri with a warm smile. The redhead barely managed a nod at the teacher before Gypsy was pulling her along again.

The girl started babbling on about some method of painting, but Daquiri wasn't really listening anymore. She'd taken this class to use as a _respite_ from the rest of school, where she wasn't obligated to say anything and she could just work on something she actually enjoyed in peace. This Gypsy girl was _anything_ but peaceful.

"—and you know, I really prefer painting without any kind of specific method, I just like to feel it, y'know? But Mrs. Adams doesn't always go for that and says I should—"

"Gypsy," Daquiri interrupted. Considering she'd hardly gotten a word in edgewise thus far, she was almost surprised when the girl actually paused in her torpedo monologue at the sound of her name. Daquiri took a breath. "If you just tell me what we're doing, I think I'll be fine doing it alone." She took back her things from the girl. "Minus the conversation."

Gypsy drew her mouth into a bow to one side. "Oh." She nodded slowly. "Okay then." Then after a beat, she gave herself a little shake physically as well as would appear mentally, as she went straight into the explanation of the projects they were working on with the same energy as before. With the way the girl seemed to go off on random tangents rather frequently, Daquiri was fairly sure the explanation took way longer than strictly necessary.

Daquiri had to resist the urge to sigh. Just talking to this girl made her feel like she needed a nap. Associating with Gypsy in any manner of way appeared to be reason enough for a respite in and of itself.

Settling into the chair at the easel station next to Gypsy, Daquiri started sketching out an idea for the project, blatantly ignoring or shooting down any of the girl's random comments or attempts at conversation, which she made despite Daquiri's previous discouragement. And that was basically how the entire class went. If it hadn't have been for the annoying rainbow child, Daquiri would have actually enjoyed it.

But apparently the Universe wished to grant her no happiness.

When the bell finally rang, Daquiri wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. But next period was lunch, so she could at least decide what people she was going to be within the vicinity of. Or lack of people, rather.

As she was leaving the classroom and following the other stream of kids heading towards the cafeteria, Gypsy caught up with her again.

"Hey, so since you're new and all, you can totally sit—"

"No." Daquiri didn't even glance at the girl. "I prefer being alone, thanks."

She was hoping Gypsy would take the hint and leave her alone then, but she clearly underestimated her level of persistence. The girl stuck to her like glue.

"Are you sure? I know it can be hard making friends on the first day, and I can _totally_ relate to that. I mean, I moved here _forever_ ago, but I still remember what it was like, so I totally get it, and I mean, I'm not like all of those _bullies_ who're just like total jerks to new kids, and..."

After about a minute, Daquiri just started to ignore Gypsy's run-on ramblings and tune her out, since apparently she didn't have an off switch. Arak's warnings not to get sent to the principal's office were starting to get a lot harder to take heed of.

"Look, _Gypsy_ ," she said through her teeth once they walked through the cafeteria doors, "I appreciate the offer—" _Not really,_ "—but I'm _fine._ You have friends, so you can go sit with them. But leave _me_ out of it."

Before the girl could react, Daquiri spun on her heel and stalked off towards the doors that led to the outdoors courtyard.

She'd never thought she'd have to work so hard _not_ to make friends here.

* * *

"How was your first day, Fox?"

Fox's bouncing in the backseat was of pure excitement. "I met lots of kids! And my teacher is really nice! And look—" Fox paused to go digging through his backpack. He pulled out a piece of paper, "—I painted a picture in art class!"

Daquiri smiled. "That makes two of us, bud."

She leaned her head back against the seat as Fox continued to chatter on about his day, with her and Arak making comments here and there. School had tired her out and, despite her best efforts to pay attention to her little brother, she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. She let out a quiet sigh as she gave up and let them close.

"Hey," Arak said in a low voice, indicating he was talking to her.

Daquiri cracked an eye open at him.

"You should get some rest when we get home."

She raised an eyebrow, her eyes still closed. "And why should I do that?"

"Oh please, Ri," Arak scoffed lightly. "You stayed up with Fox practically half the night because he couldn't sleep. You don't have to tell me for me to know you're exhausted."

Daquiri was silent for several moments. Her eyes opened a bit and shifted to the window. "Do you think Dad will be home?"

"I don't know," her brother responded. "I don't know what his new work schedule is, being at a new department and all."

When Daquiri didn't reply, her brother continued. "C'mon, Ri, I'll keep an eye on Fox. There's no sense in starting out at a new school just to overwork yourself before even getting a chance to settle." He caught her eye when she glanced over at him. "You'll drive yourself into the ground, Ri."

Turning away, she crossed her arms and pulled her legs up under her on the seat. "Whatever," she muttered, closing her eyes. Inside, however, she really was relieved. Even though Fox was older now, he still needed a lot of looking after, and even though of course Arak always did his part, Daquiri volunteered her time more than anything else. She loved her little brother more than life itself, let alone sleep.

But at the same time, it was good to have a break.

When they pulled into the house driveway, Daquiri went straight to her new room to catch a much-needed nap. They had just moved in two days ago, so a lot of things were still in shambles when it came to organization. Daquiri had to weave around and over boxes and piles of belongings just get to her bed.

She collapsed onto it with a huff, letting her book bag drop to the floor with a _thud._ Between interacting with new people, continually keeping up with Fox, and her lack of sleep the previous night, Arak had been right: she was exhausted.

Hardly minutes passed before she was out like a light.

* * *

The sun was setting when she woke up again. She lay in bed for a few minutes, trying to regather where she was and what she was doing. Waking up here would take some getting used to still.

Getting up, she left her room to go find where Arak and Fox were. She didn't hear them, which was fairly unusual, so she wondered if Arak had set up the TV to watch a movie or something.

She walked out to the kitchen, but her ears told her before her eyes did that the TV wasn't on. In fact, it somehow felt even quieter out here.

She noted a piece of paper on the counter, and she picked it up to find words on it.

 **Ri,**

 **Went with Fox to the park. Be back later.**

 **Arak**

Well then.

She sent him a text asking when they'd be home before opening the fridge to find something to eat. Well, she guessed she could get her homework done early now…

She jumped a bit in surprise when the door slammed open. And they were home. So much for doing homework.

"I just texted you," she called as she made her way around the corner to the front door. "I was just seeing when you guys were—"

Daquiri stopped when she saw it wasn't her brothers at the door. "Oh," she said stiffly. "Hi, Dad."

Lawrence Laurens narrowed his eyes at her from where he stood in the doorway, looking like he was having a hard time focusing on his daughter. It took him a few moments before he said anything.

"Where're your brothers?" he slurred, sounding like he'd been gargling on gravel.

Daquiri took a cautious step back. "You're drunk," she observed warily.

The comment seemed to irritate him, and he rubbed a hand over his face. "Daquiri. Your brothers."

Her stomach felt queasy at the question. It was never a good idea to let him know she was home alone, but it also wasn't a good idea to lie.

"They're—" her voice faltered for a moment. "They went to the park."

Her father seemed to consider this for several moments. Then he walked further inside, stumbling a bit but not completely unsteady on his feet. Drunk, but not so drunk as to keep him from doing stupid things.

That was the worst kind of drunk.

"Get me a beer," he muttered, waving a hand towards the kitchen as he walked past her into the living room.

"Get your own beer," she said with a scowl. Besides refusing to do anything her dad said half the time, she hated even being around alcohol, much less touching the stuff. Seeing the effects of it didn't exactly encourage her to find it appealing. "I have homework to do," she said coldly before turning away to go back to her room.

Daquiri flinched when her dad grabbed her arm.

"You know it's against the law to disobey a cop's orders," he growled.

Daquiri tugged against his grip and glared up at him. The resemblance to her fight with Arak that morning was a bit unnerving. "Last I checked, it wasn't legal to assault a minor, either," she said through her teeth. "Especially not your own daughter."

A pained noise escaped her when she was backhanded across the face. Working her jaw, she brought a hand to her mouth. Her fingers came away bloody.

"That's jus' called good ol' fashioned discipline," her father replied, his voice low with contempt. He pushed her away forcefully, throwing her against the counter that divided the kitchen and the living room. "Now get me my drink."

Steadying herself against the counter, Daquiri wiped her mouth off on the back of her arm. "Starting over new, huh?" she said. "New house, turning over a new leaf?" She scowled at him. "Yeah, things are going to be _real_ different here."

"Daquiri. Drink. _Now._ "

" _No,_ " she spat. She moved away before he could come at her again. "I'm not doing this anymore. I'm _done._ "

"Oh, get over it, Ri," her father leered, leaning his palms on the top of the counter to face her on the other side. "You're a big girl. I think you can handle it now."

"Maybe for Fox, but not for myself," she retorted. "And _don't_ call me that name."

Her dad snorted. "Or what? You'll fight back?"

Daquiri lifted her chin. "There's nothing stopping me, is there?"

"I can fix that."

Daquiri stared down her dad for a moment. Then she bolted for the door.

Her spot in the kitchen gave her a slight disadvantage, and even drunk as he was, her father still had the instincts of a cop. He managed to catch her wrist, and the force with which he pulled her back made her lose her balance. She slipped on the wooden floors of the hallway and fell, half suspended by the arm her dad still held tightly. He yanked her back up, twisting her wrist in the process.

"Still think you can fight?" he growled.

The moment she was steady on her feet again, Daquiri used her other arm to elbow him in the gut as hard as she could. " _Yes._ " When his grip loosened from surprise, she tore away from him, out the door and kept on running.

A lot of times, she couldn't use running as an escape from her father. Sometimes he wasn't intoxicated when he was angry, or Fox was home and Arak wasn't, or some other number of reasons. Also a lot of times, it wasn't that bad. Sometimes her dad just wanted someone to yell at, or to just knock around a bit for a minute. She considered it more of an occupational hazard of being a kid of a single parent.

Sometimes she just needed to get away, though.

Back in Oregon, she'd had go-to spots, but here she just went straight. She didn't stop, even when she heard thunder in the distance. She hadn't realized a storm had been brewing.

By the time the house was out of sight, the rain had started coming down. After only a few minutes more, it was pouring out in sheets.

A lot of weather hadn't stopped her from getting out of the house before, and a rainstorm wasn't very different now. But before too long, she did have to stop.

She stood at the edge of a cliff, the ocean crashing fifteen feet below, the sound of blood pounding in her ears. Or, wait; it was more of a roaring. The noise puzzled her for a few moments until she realized there must be a waterfall close by. Very close by. It was dark by now, the only light source the full moon that shown above: all she could see was the churning black waves, working themselves into a froth from the storm. She wouldn't want to be caught in the water during weather like this.

Then out of nowhere, thunder boomed above, with a flash of lightning following soon after.

In her already tense state, Daquiri practically had a heart attack at the sudden noise, jolting in a hard flinch from the surprise. Had she been more prepared, she wouldn't have been standing so close to the cliff edge.

She let out a surprised yelp as she lost her footing on the wet grass. The yelp turned into a scream when she realized she was falling.

For a split second, she felt like her stomach had been wrenched up into her throat. Then she gasped as she plunged into the cold water.

Salt water filled her mouth and nose, and she coughed from the shock and cold, which only made her choke worse. It took a few moments to gain her bearings enough to struggle back up to the surface.

She could hardly see through her now-waterlogged vision, much less figure out which direction the nearest shore was in. Even if she'd known, she was too disoriented to figure out which direction was which. All she could focus on was trying to keep her head above the water to breathe. She coughed as another wave washed over her, pulling her back down into the surf.

She tried yelling for help when she surfaced again, but she doubted anyone would be able to hear her in this storm, much less over the roar of the waterfall. The chances of anyone even being _out_ in this were small. And if this storm lasted, she didn't think she'd be able to keep up.

Daquiri had a very certain sense that she was going to die.

Without warning, she felt a strong force of water pushing her down from above, which she instinctively struggled against, despite her confusion as to what it was. It couldn't be the rain…

That was when she realized that she'd actually gone _under_ the waterfall.

Before she could decide whether that was good or bad, a strong wave pushed her forward, sending her crashing against the cliffside. She let out a gasp as the wind was knocked out of her, and her body went limp, refusing to work for her. All she could do was let out a struggled cry as she was sucked back under the water.

After the events that had led her here, a part of her just wanted to let go and give it all up; at least then she wouldn't have to keep running—to keep living the way she had been for the past five years.

Then thoughts of Fox and Arak crossed her mind as she felt herself being pulled under, and her chest ached for a different reason than from the lack of oxygen. She couldn't just leave them alone—especially not Fox.

Heck, when had she _ever_ just given up?

Pushing through her lightheadedness, Daquiri forced her limbs to start working again, determinedly fighting her way back up to the top. She was _not_ just going to let herself drown.

Just when she thought her lungs were going to burst, her head broke through the surface. She heaved in a breath, struggling between a mixture of coughing and sucking in air. She was okay. She wasn't dead.

It took Daquiri a few moments to realize that the water she was treading in was no longer churning in a frenzy, with no waves to speak of. In fact, she'd never seen water looking so calm. Then when she actually looked around, she realized she was no longer by the cliffside, but in a fairly large pool of water; the rumble of the waterfall was now muffled, and when she looked up she saw a large hole way up in the ceiling like a skylight. The moon was just starting to creep past its edges.

Where _was_ she?

Looking around curiously, she decided she must be in some kind of cave—most of the sky above her was covered apart from the skylight, and the air smelled a bit musty and saltier than regular ocean air, like it didn't have a breeze flowing through it on a regular basis.

Caught up in her surroundings, Daquiri was caught by surprise when the water in the pool began to bubble. She was alarmed at first, but then she watched in a bit of befuffled amazement as little drops of sparkling water began to rise up towards the ceiling. She watched their course as they traveled up through the skylight, and disappeared in the moonlight. The full moon now sparkled bright in the middle of the skylight, looking eerily ethereal.

It was probably the strangest sight Daquiri had ever seen, but considering the circumstances, she wasn't really in the place to sit and think about it.

Slowly swimming her way over to the edge of the pool, she heaved herself out of the water and up onto the smooth rock floor of the cave. She was exhausted, and bone-cold now; she shivered as she stood up and looked around. It was pretty dark in the cave, but she could barely see the silhouette of a tunnel entrance. Cautiously, she walked over to investigate.

It was much too dark to see further into the tunnel without some source of light. Even if it did lead out into the open again, she'd never be able to navigate the way in the dark and tired as she was. It looked like the only way she'd be able to get back out was back under the cave wall of the pool—but even then, she didn't know how far she would have to swim before she reached shore, and she wasn't sure if she had enough strength at this point for guesswork. Sighing and unsure of what to do, Daquiri leaned a hand against the cave wall.

She gave a bit of a jump when the top of the cave suddenly lit up like a night light. It winked out into blackness again with the removal of her hand.

The _heck?_

Cautiously putting a hand to the wall again, her eyes widened as the ceiling once again sprang to life. She stared up at it in stunned silence.

Crystals glittered with an ethereal blue glow across the ceiling, revealing the stalactites that dripped down in a way that was both menacing and beautiful. The crystals continued along down the tunnel ceiling, illuminating the path until it disappeared behind a bend.

"What is this place..." she wondered quietly to herself. Her words echoed around the walls in soft whispers.

This place either felt magical or was giving her a serious case of the heeby-jeebies. Possibly a mix of both.

Looking back at the pool again, she steeled her nerves. She didn't want to go back in there. And now that this way actually looked doable, she didn't think she really had much else of a choice.

Taking a deep breath, she continued into the tunnel, keeping her hand sliding along the wall as she went deeper into the cave, only hoping that she'd be able to make her way out of here without anything else going wrong.

* * *

With the crystals to guide her, it didn't take very long to find the cave entrance. Which was lucky, since there were tunnels that led every which way off in multiple other directions. She probably would've ended up hopelessly lost if not for the lights.

Most of the entrance was covered by a veil of moss and lichen, which was kind of off-putting, but at this point she'd stopped caring. She just wanted to get home.

It was no longer raining when she stepped out onto a rocky alcove of the beach, hidden away from the average person's eye if they didn't venture further. By the looks of the cave, it was apparent not many people did.

Daquiri made her way up the sand dunes back to the top of the hill, realizing the part of the cliff where she'd fallen was actually quite a ways away. The rocky peak of the top of the waterfall looked to be a pretty fair distance off; she'd lost track of how long she'd been walking through the caves.

Once she had figured out where she was, though, she made haste to get back to the house. She hadn't brought her cell phone when she'd ran out—whether luckily or unluckily for her, as it would've been ruined after that ocean dip—and she figured the majority of the household would at least be worried about where she was. That, and she was still exhausted. She didn't know how she was going to get herself to do homework now.

"Ri!" Arak jumped up when she came through the front door. "You're okay!"

Daquiri pushed him away when he pulled her into a hug. "Of course I'm fine, Arak. Relax."

Her brother gave her a look.

She avoided his gaze. "I just had to get out for a while."

"Why are you all wet?"

"It was raining."

"You smell like salt water."

"I...might've taken a small swim."

"In your clothes?"

"I was naked?"

"Ri."

Daquiri crossed her arms and turned her head away. "So I fell in. I'm fine."

"You _fell_ in? From where?"

"I just slipped off the edge of the cliffside, chill. I didn't get hurt."

"You fell off a _cliff?!_ "

Daquiri gave an impatient sigh. "Where's Fox?"

Arak gave her a frustrated look, but he gestured to the back hallway. "He's in bed already, it's almost one in the morning."

"And Dad?"

She could see Arak restraining himself from rolling his eyes. "He passed out a while ago."

Daquiri rubbed a hand over her face. "Good. I need some quiet if I'm going to get my homework done." She began to head off to her room.

Arak caught her up by the arm. "Ri..." his voice was lower now. "What happened?"

Daquiri locked eyes with her brother for a moment. "What do _you_ think, Arak?" Then she tugged her arm away and went off to her room for the night.

* * *

 **A/N:** I was going to put an author's note down here for something, but now I can't remember what it was. Oh well.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Huzzah! Finally, chapter 2! Didn't take me almost a month or anything. In all honesty, though, this might become a once-a-month upload story, since A) I get busy and am starting school next month and B) It can take me slower to write depending on how much inspiration I have on a given day. This chapter ended up almost as long as the last one, though, so I'm hoping I can keep up the length.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 2| FISH OUT OF WATER**

Daquiri startled upright at the sound of her alarm going off. She groaned, letting her head thump back down on her folded arms. She'd fallen asleep at her desk trying to get her homework done last night, and subsequently, she felt even more tired than if she'd actually gone to sleep in her bed. She was already predicting that today was not going to go all that well.

Dragging herself up from her desk, she changed clothes and brushed out her hair before heading into the hallway bathroom, locking the door behind her. You could never be too careful when you lived with two brothers and a father.

As expected, her makeup was an absolute mess from sleeping on it, so she knew she'd just have to take it off and start over. Maybe she shouldn't even wear makeup today...

She grabbed a wash cloth and wet it down in the sink before scrubbing vigorously at her face. She hated the feeling of left over makeup...

Not even thirty seconds after she'd started washing however, she felt a weird tingling sensation.

Then next thing she knew she was falling onto the floor.

For a second Daquiri wasn't sure what had happened. She could've sworn...her body looked like it had...

Then she gave a small yelp of surprise and utter confusion when she saw her legs.

Or rather, her _lack_ of legs.

A deep, emerald green fish tail had appeared where her legs _should_ have been, and apparently dragged her clothes with it. Looking down, she realized her top had also morphed into what looked like a bikini halter top, of the same color as the tail, and...scaly?

What the actual hell.

All she could do was stare at this new development with a look of absolute dumbfoundedness.

Was she dreaming?

Despite herself, she pinched her arm just in case. And nothing. Apparently this was actually happening.

She wasn't sure how she was supposed to respond to this.

Then there was a knock at the door.

"Ri? Are you in there?"

Oh, great.

"Um..." Daquiri paused, carefully turning herself over so she was leaning on her hands. "Just a minute, Arak."

"You might wanna hurry up, Fox has to go."

Daquiri's lips pressed together in concentration as she experimented trying to pull herself up and lean on her...tail...like she was kneeling on her knees. "Duly noted," she replied through gritted teeth. She let out a small grunt when she ultimately failed and fell back to the ground.

Well this was seriously the most annoyingly unfortunate thing that had ever happened to her.

She pulled herself forward on the bathroom floor to snatch the bath towel hanging off the door hook and used it to dry herself off, since a sheen of water seemed to have appeared all over her body simultaneously with the tail.

"Daquiri, seriously, can't you do this later?" Arak sounded like he was getting impatient now.

"Not really," she snapped. "Just use the other bathroom for God's sake." She continued drying herself down.

She heard Arak mutter something but didn't quite catch what it was before she heard footsteps moving away from the door. That was one problem out of the way, at least.

It took her a few minutes, but she finally got herself dry. Which apparently seemed to do the trick, because the tail morphed back into her regular body after that, clothes and all.

She breathed a sigh of relief before standing up again.

Looking at her reflection in the mirror, her usual self stared back at her. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, except that half of her eye makeup was still caked around her eyes. How was she supposed to get it off now?

And what exactly had just happened?

* * *

Daquiri spent the rest of the morning avoiding water. Which was a lot harder than one might've first thought.

She didn't say much to Arak or even Fox on the way to school, her mind too occupied with how exactly this was possible. It had to have something to do with an event that happened recently. Moving to California? She was pretty sure that every person who moved here didn't get turned into a fish. Plus, it had been a little over a week since they'd moved.

She thought back to last night. There had been that strange cave...the way the pool had bubbled, and the water had floated up and disappeared in the moonlight…

It was like some sort of magic had happened.

But...for how long? Did this wear off? Would it be only temporary?

She sure hoped so. Because if this morning was a pain, she _really_ didn't want to be living this way for the rest of her life.

And what was she supposed to tell Arak and Fox? _Could_ she even tell them? She wasn't sure if there was an easy way to tell anyone that she was a...a...

"Here we go, bud!"

Daquiri looked up as Arak announced their arrival to Fox. She put on a face to say goodbye to her brother and wish him a good day at school, and he trotted off to the front doors without seeming to be much the wiser about her troubled state.

Arak, however, was not so easily fooled.

"Alright, Ri, spill," Arak said once they were moving again.

Daquiri glanced at him nonchalantly before looking back out the window. "Spill what?"

"Ri, your good lying around everyone else counts as bad lying around me."

Daquiri rolled her eyes. "I don't want to talk about it, Arak."

Arak didn't respond to that right away. He took a breath. "Ri, these conversations aren't exactly my favorite, either. But honesty is one of the few things we can control as a family. I'd like to keep it that way."

"You know what isn't my favorite? You sounding like my parent," she snapped.

"Sometimes there's a reason for that," he shot back, frustration seeping into his voice. "I'm not supposed to be the bad guy here."

"Are you really calling _me_ a kid?" She actually turned to her brother now, anger sparking in her eyes.

"Hate to break it to you, Ri, but you're fifteen. You kind of are."

Now Daquiri was legitimately angry. "Me being _fifteen_ does not mean I have to tell you everything, Arak. I don't care how messed up Dad is, you are my _brother_ , _not_ my father." She crossed her arms. "If we'd had normal childhoods, then yeah, maybe I'd still be a kid. But _hate to break it to you_ —I had to grow up even faster than you did."

They had pulled into the school parking lot at that point. When he stopped, Arak ran a hand over his face.

"I really hate these conversations," he muttered. He turned off the car and got out.

Daquiri stayed put a moment longer before sighing and silently following him.

Neither of them said a word as they walked up to the school.

"Just...try to cool off before the day's over," he muttered at her before they headed into the doors.

"Noted," she replied stiffly.

They parted ways.

* * *

Daquiri was still in a fairly bad mood by lunch time. She'd avoided talking in class as much as possible, and now she was just glad she could get away with a half hour respite of being alone.

Or so she'd hoped.

Daquiri was in the middle of eating her salad out of the Tupperware container she'd brought from home when her spot on the grass was abruptly bathed in shadow. She looked up from the book she was concentrating on reading to see who was blocking her sunlight.

To say the least, she wasn't very enthused to recognize the culprit.

"Hey, Daquiri!" Gypsy chirped. Two other kids stood on either side of her—on the right a taller Latina-looking girl, with black hair up in a ponytail and rather sporty-looking clothes; and on the left was a giant. Actually, it was a giant she also recognized—it was the quiet boy she sat next to in her home room, Christopher. She'd still only really seen him sitting down, but now that he was standing up she could see that he had to be at least six feet tall, most likely taller, and he had the build of a bear. Sitting down in front of him was like being next to a building.

Altogether, the three of them looked like a rather odd trio.

Daquiri narrowed her eyes. "Not in the mood, Gypsy." She caught the look that the other two exchanged over Gypsy's head before Daquiri returned her attention to her book.

"I brought my friends to meet you!" she said brightly, like what Daquiri had just said hadn't registered. It probably hadn't, actually. "I figured if you didn't like me, you'd probably like them!"

She wasn't sure whether to be irritated or bemused by the fact that her blatant disregard towards Gypsy didn't seem to faze the girl at all.

When she didn't immediately reply, however, Gypsy forged onwards with the introductions.

"This is Suzi," she said enthusiastically, gesturing to the Latina girl.

Suzi made a short waving motion with an expression that resembled a half-smirk more than an actual smile. " 'Sup."

"And thiiiiis—" Gypsy drew out the word in sing-song fashion as she dramatically splayed her arms out at Christopher. "—is Indy."

 _Indy?_

Christopher-Indy nodded his head in lieu of greeting to her.

Daquiri raised an eyebrow despite herself.

"I thought your name was Christopher," she said flatly.

Whatever His Name Was gave a bit of a smile. "It is—"

"—not," Gypsy finished for him. She grinned like she found this confusion particularly hilarious. "It's Indy."

What's-his-head gave Gypsy a sidelong glance. "Well, technically it's—"

"—Indy," Gypsy interrupted again. "Because that's his real name." If possible, she was grinning even more.

The boy gave a resigned look, apparently not finding it worth it to attempt further explanation. Gypsy gave him a triumphant elbow-nudge—which notably didn't appear to have any effect on him at all. It was like he was a brick wall.

"His name is Christopher," Suzi said, her tone rather short and to the point. "Everyone calls him Indy. Long story."

Daquiri's dubious expression stayed constant throughout the so-called "explanation". It still hadn't budged by the end.

"...okay."

She wasn't sure what else to say, and she still wasn't interested in a conversation in the first place, so she just stayed silent and tried to go back to reading.

The key word being "tried".

"Mind if we join you for the rest of lunch?" Gypsy asked, her voice continuing on its bouncy, boisterous streak.

Daquiri shut her eyes for a moment. "Yes, kind of," she said through gritted teeth. If Gypsy was too oblivious to figure out she wanted to be left alone, wouldn't at least _one_ of her friends catch her drift? Because otherwise, the people at this school had serious boundary issues.

Gypsy cocked her head. "Are you sure? You really seem like—"

"Well that's too bad maybe another time," her friend, Suzi, cut in, grabbing Gypsy's wrist and starting to pull her away. "C'mon, Gyp, we should go get some chocolate milk, nice meeting you Daquiri see ya bye." Her words ran together in a succinct stream, seeming to imply that she really thought Gypsy needed to be shoved away from the situation.

Which Daquiri was perfectly fine with.

Christopher looked after his friends before looking back at her for a moment. She'd decided if his name was Christopher, that was what she was going to refer to him as, no matter how everyone else did.

"It was nice, uh, meeting you," he said, his behavior a bit awkward, before quickly following back after Gypsy and Suzi.

She sure hoped _that_ never happened again.

She took another bite from her salad as she went back to her book. And _that_ had been about five minutes out of her lunch time. She looked at her phone for the time. A whole three minutes left. Yay.

"Hey, you're the new girl, right?"

Daquiri wanted to bang her head against the next wall she saw.

"What do _you_ want?" she snapped, looking up to see a small group of guys had apparently moved in to replace the Odd Squad. There were three of them, a tall muscular one with buzzed dark hair, a slightly shorter and leaner one with hair gelled into one of those obnoxious rhino spikes, and the shortest, who was still probably at least 5'11', a tanned blond who looked like some kind of typical beach boy. All probably a little too much on the attractive side for their own good.

So the douchebag crew of the school had finally decided to show themselves. This was her cue to leave.

"New girl is touchy," Beach Blond said with a laugh, kind of like she wasn't sitting right in front of them.

"New girl is _hot_ ," Beef Tower sneezed.

"New girl is leaving," she dead-panned, putting the lid on her lunch and getting up from her spot.

"Aw, they're just teasing," Rhino Horn said with a smile. "We were just coming over to say hi. Y'know, friendly welcome for the new girl."

"Hi," she said flatly. "Bye."

"This chick is hilarious," one of them snickered—she didn't really care to know which. All of their comments about her were pissing her off a little more than usual interactions with strangers normally did.

"If you're fully entertained then, I'll be heading to class now." The lack of enthusiasm in her voice hadn't risen a smidge, and with that she shouldered her bookbag and began to walk away.

"Hey," one of them said behind her, "don't you wanna tell us your name first?" When she didn't turn around, a hand touched her shoulder.

She spun around and slapped his hand away. It was Rhino Horn who had followed after her, though the other two were only steps behind. "Touch me again and you'll _really_ wish you hadn't," she snapped, a fierce edge to her voice and her top about two seconds away from _completely_ blowing through the roof.

Rhino Horn frowned at her reaction while his moron friends "ooooh'ed" in the background like the way stupid highschoolers did when someone got called to the principal's office.

"You'd better be scared, Ty," Beef Tower said with a guffaw. "Mini May's gonna _get you._ "

Daquiri glared at him, and it didn't look like the apparent Ty gave him the nicest of looks either.

"Shut up, Drew," Ty muttered at him. Then he looked back at Daquiri. "And you need to chill."

"Or I could just leave," she retorted before wheeling back around to stride away again. "And _you_ can leave me alone," she tossed back over her shoulder.

Ty yelled a rude name back at her, one that her father liked to use for her a lot, but she ignored it. She wasn't about to start some kind of scene on her second day of school.

Though, as she felt stares burning into the back of her head and curious eyes on her all the way to the courtyard door, she realized she already had.

* * *

Fifth hour she realized she now had a familiar face in her chemistry class. Luckily it wasn't her lab partner, but Suzi sat at the lab station to the right of her, and they both sat at the edge so there was no one between them.

So that was slightly awkward.

Daquiri looked up when the girl cleared her throat. She raised a thin eyebrow at her.

"I know Gyp can be a bit...overzealous sometimes," Suzi started. The tone of her voice made it apparent to Daquiri this wasn't really an apology, however. "But you were pretty rude for a new kid that could use friends." Suzi's expression was now definitely on the icier side.

Daquiri let out a sigh through her nose. She was getting really tired of people being "friendly to the new girl".

"Contrary to what everyone else seems to think," she said evenly, "I'm not actually _interested_ in making friends. I come here, I learn, I go home. That's all the state of California requires, so I'd appreciate if everyone stopped trying to shove their ideals down my throat."

Both of Suzi's eyebrows had lifted into high arches by the time Daquiri finished her retort. There was a look of clear disregard on her face now, almost bordering on scornful.

"I don't know why Gyp even tried with you," she said, half muttering to herself.

Daquiri just turned her back on the girl. Her reputation really was the last thing she was worried about at this school.

Their teacher had already explained the lab for today, so now it was time to get through it as fast as possible. Daquiri had always been pretty good at science, which was lucky for her since she wasn't sure how much she'd be able to count on her actual lab partner. Not that he looked completely incompetent or anything, but he didn't exactly look the studious type, either.

Then again, she supposed neither did she.

"Well, this looks dumb, but easy enough." Her partner looked over at her. "What was your name again?"

Well, if she had to.

"Daquiri," she said shortly. She still wasn't in the greatest of moods.

"I'm Kalen," the guy returned easily, giving her a lopsided smile.

"Last I checked that was a girl's name," she said dryly.

Kalen laughed. "Last _I_ checked, yours was a delightful alcoholic beverage," he said with a grin.

Daquiri rolled her eyes. "Different pronunciation, different spelling. Can we get on with this experiment?"

"Whatever the queen says," he said with a wink.

Somebody just strangle her now.

"So, uh, I guess you can section off the different paper towels and I'll set up the water for the eyedropper?" he asked as he grabbed a test beaker.

Daquiri eyed the faucet in the middle of the lab station. Best to keep staying away from water for now. "Sure."

She kept her eyes trained on the running water of the tap even as she ripped off the different brands of paper towel, feeling on edge just being around it. If the developments of the morning still hadn't changed, getting wet right now would be a _serious_ problem.

Daquiri glanced over at Kalen when he swore under his breath. "Forgot my lab book," he muttered. He looked over at the teacher before looking back at her. "Hey I'll be right back, my locker's like two seconds away." He wiggled his eyebrows towards her. "Cover for me if anyone asks?"

The redhead just rolled her eyes at him as he got up from the table and slid out the door.

She spent her time waiting for him filling out the pre-experiment information in her own lab book, up until Suzi of all people got her attention again.

"Not that you'd apparently care," she said in a low voice, "but I'd watch out for that kid. He's not as nice a guy as he comes across."

Daquiri drew her eyebrows together. "Kalen?" Sure, he was annoying and irritatingly flirtatious, but he didn't really seem to be the type who was capable of being outright nefarious. "What, is he your ex or something?" Daquiri asked with the slightest of sneers.

Suzi immediately snorted. "What? No," she retorted. "He's just—"

"Devilishly handsome, if I do say so myself."

Daquiri huffed at the sound of Kalen's voice behind her before giving Suzi a look. She apparently wasn't the greatest of look outs. The girl began to open her mouth with a warning look as Daquiri began to turn around again, but she ignored her. She'd had enough of listening to—

"Woah!" Kalen said in surprise, trying to move out of the way, but Daquiri had turned right into him.

And the beaker of water he was holding.

"Sorry," Kalen said with a laugh as Daquiri stared wide-eyed at the water that had sloshed all over her. "At least it's only water, right?"

Daquiri snapped out of her frozen horror. "Excuse me," she said, not even bothering to snap at the boy as she hurried out of the classroom. When she got out the door, she ran. Wheretogowheretogo— _there_.

She practically sprinted into the open door, pushing the mop bucket out of the way and shutting the door behind her. She'd barely gotten inside before she felt herself change, and she wobbled off balance for a second until she was falling. She grunted hard as she fell onto a crate with a bunch of cleaning supplies.

Janitor's closet. Great.

She sighed, looking over her shoulder to give her tail a bit of a resigned look.

Well. It definitely hadn't worn off.

Even with all the convenient paper towel she found in the closet, it still took her over 10 minutes to completely dry off. One would not _believe_ how difficult it was reaching the end of her fin.

The idea of it was still weirding her out, actually.

When she quietly returned to the classroom, she wasn't entirely sure how to act. A couple of the kids gave her weird looks and stares, which she was sure wasn't helped by the fact that she was new and still almost no one knew her.

She tried to just ignore everyone as she sat back down at her lab station. She fiddled with some of the lab equipment. "So, where were we?"

She could feel Kalen staring at her.

"Are...you okay?" he asked.

"That's what I would like to know."

Daquiri looked up to see their teacher, Mrs. Evans, standing in front of their lab station. Fantastic.

"Um." She smoothed down her dress a bit. "I...got sick all of a sudden." She knew the tricks to believable lying, so she looked Mrs. Evans straight in the eye when she said so, but inside she felt uneasy. What if things like this kept happening?

Mrs. Evans pressed her lips together, her forehead creasing like she was trying to decide whether or not to believe Daquiri. "If that's the case, then you should go to the school nurse to make sure everything's alright."

"I feel fine now," Daquiri said quickly.

The teacher gave a short shake of her head. "If you're coming down with something, you don't want to give it to everyone. Better have someone take a look at it just to make sure. I'll write you a pass."

Daquiri tried not to sigh as she reluctantly packed up her things and got up from her seat with her bag slung over her shoulder. It looked like this whole anti-water thing was going to be even more trouble than she'd expected.

She saw Suzi raising her brows at her out of the corner of her eye as she walked out. So much for going unnoticed at this school; it was twice now that she'd caught the eye of a crowd. She had enough to deal with at home—she'd hoped at least _something_ about her life could be ordinary.

And now she was missing class on only the second day of school for next to no reason, because like hell was she going to the nurse's office to have them poke around at her. She'd predicted from the moment she'd woken up that morning that today wasn't going to go well—and it had gone worse. She just needed to get out.

Forget just skipping class. She was going to skip out on the rest of school to figure this out.

* * *

She texted Arak saying she didn't feel well and was heading home for the day by herself. Even if she did head home on foot it wouldn't take too long, but that wasn't where she was going.

She hadn't exactly been paying attention to where she was running the night before, but it actually didn't take her long to find the cliffside waterfall again; almost like she had an innate sense for where it was. It was weird.

She was careful as she sat down to dangle her legs off the side. Even if it wasn't storming and she was suddenly what appeared to be half fish, she wasn't any more eager to have an encore of last night. So far she'd only transformed while on land; what if once she got in the water, it became permanent?

She drew her legs up to her and ran her hands over them. She was still just confused on... _why_ this had happened to her. And whether or not it was supposed to be a gift or a curse.

At the moment, it felt more like the latter.

And there was still the matter of whether or not to keep it a secret. The only person she would ever even think of telling would be Arak—he was right about the family honesty thing. But even that being said, she often kept secrets from him anyway. For now, she supposed she'd just have to wait it out and see how things went from there…

Daquiri looked further along the edge of the cliff, a ways off to where it tapered into a more gentle slope and onto the beach. Going down there and around the bend into the rocky outcrop was where the cave entrance was half hidden. She wondered…

She made her way down to the entrance, looking around to be sure no one saw her, but this part of the beach was barren as it normally seemed to be. Or at least, in the times she'd been there it had been. She slipped behind the hanging lichen into the entrance of the cave. Even just a few feet in, it was so dark she could hardly even see the silhouettes of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

She hesitated for a moment before tentatively laying a hand against the wall.

Instantly, the ceiling lit up brilliantly. Daquiri stared at the crystals, the soft blue-green light of their glow almost entrancing. If only the ceiling weren't so high, she'd have inspected them closer. In light of the change that had happened to her, they seemed even more magical than the night before. There was definitely something special about them.

She walked along the path, following the trail of the light every time she came to a crossroads—which was notably a lot. She imagined that without the guidance of the crystals, it would be nigh impossible to navigate the cave without getting lost in the passageways.

It took her longer than she remembered to get to the cavern with the pool, though that might've been because she took longer to look around her at the cave. Even after she removed her hand from the wall of the pool cavern, the room seemed to stay lit up by the ethereal glow of the pool, as well as the skylight above. She walked over to the edge of the still water.

It sure was strange looking. The smooth stones lining the pool looked like they'd been built that way, as opposed to naturally aligning themselves the way they were. But at the same time, Daquiri had the feeling that no one had ever been in here. Like everything here was because of...well, because of…

Magic.

She would've thought she sounded crazy to even herself, but then again, she had a tail, so.

Daquiri sat down crisscross by the pool edge, staring down at the water. It had bubbled and sparkled last night, but now it was completely still. She felt drawn to reach a hand out and run it through the water, but she didn't particularly feel like turning into a mermaid at the moment.

Oh God.

She'd just thought it out loud. Or, in her head. Whatever. _She'd just called herself a mermaid._

Not that it was exactly taboo, but she'd been avoiding the idea up until now. Kind of holding out and hoping this would go away. But really, there wasn't anything else to call it.

She was a mermaid.

She placed her chin on a propped-up hand. Some move this was turning out to be.

* * *

Daquiri managed to get all the way to lunch the next day without another water incident. Even the morning had gone fairly smoothly.

Arak had wanted to know why she'd gotten home late again last night, but she'd continued to avoid his questions. Which only continued to frustrate him, she knew, but he was also aware she'd always liked having her space. Right now, she couldn't give him much more of an answer than that.

The part she did feel bad about, however, was leaving Arak with Fox the entire time. Even after she'd gotten home, she'd stayed in her room the rest of the night, doing homework and generally just being alone. She hadn't interacted with him again until going into his and Arak's room to kiss him goodnight. She'd ignored Arak then, too.

Many times when she had problems, she'd gone to Arak to confide in.

With this problem, she had absolutely zero people to confide in.

She might have said, 'ergo, she was sitting alone at a cafeteria table,' but in reality, she'd be sitting alone for lunch anyway.

She'd decided to stay inside today, and was off at a smaller table near the corner of the cafeteria where no one else was sitting. For whatever reason, though, other kids really didn't seem to be getting the memo on the 'stay away' vibe that she'd been giving off since she arrived at this school.

She glanced up at the sound of chairs scraping against the floor around her table to see her three absolute _favorite_ guys all sitting down across from her.

Daquiri raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you?" Her tone, on the other hand, said "go away."

The spiky haired one, Ty, pushed his lunch tray and drink up a bit so he could lean forward on the table, his annoyingly white smile grinning at her. "I figured we got off on the wrong foot yesterday," he said. "So we thought we'd come smooth things over, try to cheer you up." His two friends, Drew and whatever-the-other's-name-was, nodded and gave her lazy smiles accordingly.

She continued to look unimpressed.

"You all at least have _a_ class with me," she began dryly. "Why not _smooth things over_ then?"

Ty shrugged. "We figured we might as well all do it together. Gives you two less conversations to listen to, right?" He gave her a quick wink with a slight chuckle.

Daquiri wasn't amused. "I'd say this was still one too many."

Beach Blond went off on a guffaw and Drew snickered. "Man, you _are_ hard to get," Drew said, accompanied by another snicker and a nudge aimed towards Ty.

Daquiri glared at him, her anger beginning to rise again. "Maybe I'd be easier 'to get' if I were an object instead of, oh, I don't know, a _person_." Her voice was dripping with a mixture of sarcasm and venom, and she was about two seconds away from actually slapping one of these jerks.

"Hey guys, cool it with the commentary, would you?" Ty pushed at Drew's face, seeming to only be half serious about getting his friend to quit it. Beach Blond might not have been saying as much, but he was sitting back with an amused expression on his face that was really getting under Daquiri's skin.

Ty looked back at her with a smirk. "You can ignore them. They're not very good at first impressions. I'm Tyler, by the way, and that's Drew and Clayne," he said, gesturing to Beef Tower and Beach Blond in turn. "We all just thought you seemed cool, and think you should come hang out some time. You know, go down to the beach or something."

Well, there weren't several red flags going up about that offer or anything.

She tried to heed Arak's warning from their first day, about not getting into fights and especially not getting sent to the office. She tried to take a calm breath.

"As tempting as that sounds," she said slowly, her voice dry, "I think I'll pass."

"If I didn't know better I'd say you didn't like us," Ty said with a bit of a laugh, and the smug smirk still attached to his face. It was making keeping cool a _lot_ harder.

"Let me ask you something, Tyler," she said, her tone abruptly changing. All three of the guys seemed to straighten up when she leaned forward.

"Yeah?" Ty said, smiling slowly.

Daquiri narrowed her eyes. "Did all three of you have to work really hard to get to this level, or are you all just _naturally_ top grade douchebags?" She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Because I just can't seem to figure it out."

None of the guys looked all too happy with her at that.

"Hey now—" Tyler and his friends started to get up from their seats, but then they got interrupted.

"Hey, guys!"

Yup. Guess who.

None other than Gypsy, Suzi and Christopher had walked up. Daquiri had tensed even more defensively when the douche trio stood up, and now she was close to snapping. She didn't think Gypsy and her friends were about to help the situation.

Tyler still looked a bit pissed off, as did Drew and Clayne, but he gave a bit of a smile when he saw the three. "Hey Gypsy, Suzi." Ty smirked at each of them in turn. Then his eyes flicked to Christopher. "And Indy, of course." His expression got more of its smugness back at regarding the heck-of-a-lot-taller boy.

By the silent look Christopher gave Ty in return, he didn't seem to regard him very highly himself.

Gypsy rocked back and forth on her feet, a smile on her face that seemed to mark her as oblivious to the tension in the air. "Sooo, whatcha guys talkin' about?" she asked cheerfully.

Daquiri kept silent, just continuing to glare at the boys still across from her as her built-up anger was reaching its peak. She really just needed to get out and cool off…

Ty, on the other hand, looked like he was easing up. A slow smile slid onto his face. "Oh, we were just telling little red here that she should really come down to the beach with us some time." Daquiri grimaced at the nickname. Then Tyler looked straight at Christopher with a grin. "You should help us convince her, Indy. Wouldn't you say she's hot enough to be worth seeing in a bikini?"

Christopher looked like he was going to say something along the lines of "shut up".

Daquiri's top blew before he had the chance.

"You know what?" Daquiri snapped, bolting upright. "Why don't all of you just—"

She was interrupted by about ten drinks erupting around her.

Daquiri's eyes widened at the mess that was now everywhere. She looked down at her clenched hands.

Tyler, Drew and Clayne were in the middle of swearing about having their drinks blow up on them. Christopher was frowning at some kind of liquid that had splashed onto his jacket sleeve.

Suzi and Gypsy were staring at her.

"I...have to go." Daquiri hastily grabbed her stuff, leaving half her uneaten lunch and tea on the table and quickly heading for the cafeteria doors. She avoided making eye contact with all the kids that had been disrupted by the commotion. She seemed to be getting worse and worse at this not-making-a-scene thing.

She was halfway down the hall before she heard the door slapping open and closed behind her and then running footsteps.

"Daquiri! Daquiri, wait!"

Daquiri recognized Gypsy's voice behind her, but she didn't bother turning around. She was about 200% less in the mood to talk to people than she'd even been five minutes ago.

That didn't seem to deter the crazy rainbow-dreaded girl from catching up and cutting her off anyway, however.

"Gypsy, I _really_ don't want to talk right now," she said, her voice still on edge. She tried to continue walking around the girl, but Gypsy just took up walking backwards.

"You left your drink behind!" Gypsy exclaimed, hurriedly shoving the bottle of iced tea at her.

Daquiri immediately jumped back a bit at the sight of the sloshing liquid, though it didn't quite go over the lip of the bottle. She steadied herself, trying to stay nonchalant. "Watch it!" she snapped. "You can have it, I don't care."

Gypsy paused, seeming to consider something.

Then out of nowhere, she overturned the drink and thrust it in Daquiri's direction.

Daquiri gasped just out of pure shock of her entire front being soaked. She looked up at Gypsy for a moment, a mixture of anger and confusion in her eyes.

Then she ran.

* * *

 **A/N** :Fun fact: the douchebag comment Tyler made to Ri about looking hot in a bikini I got from an actual personal experience. I wasn't much happier than Ri about it.

These first two chapters were a bit slow, I know-had to get all those introductions and such out of the way. That's why I had to end with some excitement! Whee! Hopefully things should pick up in interest from here on out, though.

So, yeah. I think that was all I was going to say. Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment/review! :D


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Hey, guys! It's finally here! So sorry for the delay on this chapter, but I started at a university September 7th and got absolutely slammed with homework a couple weeks in. Art major life is crazy. It put a pause on my writing, however, so now this chapter is almost a month later than I wanted it. D: On the bright side, however, I'm already over halfway through Chapter 4~so hopefully I'll be able to get that one up on time for this month or sooner! :3 Oh, also: there are these reviews I can't answer on here because they're from guests, and I feel bad about ignoring them. D: So I'm going to try to answer the ones I get in all my beginning A/N's in the next chapter, so if you're waiting for a response, you'll just have to wait a bit!

bethy679: Glad you love the story! :D I am indeed an experienced writer, as I've been writing for...7 years now? Seems like it's been way longer. Still amateur, but I've definitely developed over time! Sorry it ended up being even _longer_ than a month to update~I'll be trying to keep it at a month while I'm at school! The chapters are decently long though, so with my schoolwork there still might be some that end up late. :-/ Hope that doesn't discourage you from keeping on reading, though!

marinetooth123: Your review is kind of from forever ago, but hope you're still keeping up with the story! Sorry the update wasn't as soon as you probably hoped, but glad you like my story, and thanks for the review!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 3| THREE'S A CHARM**

"You're absolutely _sure_ , Gyp?"

Indy and Suzi had caught up with her after Gypsy had chased after Daquiri, but she'd told Indy she'd catch up with him in a few minutes and pulled Suzi aside.

"Aren't _you_ sure?" Gypsy asked Suzi back. "Just look at what happened to all those drinks! And she ran away after I splashed her, Sue!"

Suzi tightened her lips, her forehead creasing in thought. "If she really is...and she really turned...she'd be around here somewhere." Suzi's eyes flitted around the hallway like she expected to see Daquiri flipping about where everyone could see her. "We could go find her right now, before she manages to turn back."

Cocking her head for a moment, Gypsy shook it. "Not here. I think we should do it in the water. We need to show her, too."

"We can't just _risk_ our secret to a random new kid, Gyp. We don't even know her!"

"She has the _same_ secret, Suze, I know it." Then Gypsy shrugged. "Besides, we'll push her in first," she said with a grin.

Suzi rolled her eyes. "Fine. But we'll have to figure out how to trick her. Meet me after school. And don't bring Indy!" Suzi gave her a final look before spinning around to head off to class.

Letting out a short breath through her nose and giving a slight glance to the ceiling, Gypsy went to go find Indy again.

She found him already at his seat in class, even though there were still a few minutes before the bell rang, and she went over and plunked herself down next to him. He looked up from what he was working on—knowing him, it was probably next week's math homework or something—and raised his brows at her a bit.

"Secret sister meeting?" he asked, his expression slightly bemused, though more on the amused side.

Gypsy snorted. "Oh, yes, we had to discuss the deep and complex interworkings of the female race that you just wouldn't be able to comprehend."

Indy's mouth ticked into a slight smirk. "Females aren't a race, Gyp."

"...you know what I mean." She stuck her tongue out at him before finally taking her things for class out of her backpack. She rested her chin on a hand as she forced herself to double check her answers from her homework last night. Sometimes she'd get distracted while doing it and forget to actually finish the problem…

"Hey, Gyp?"

Gypsy looked over at Indy again. "Yes, my mountain block of a friend?" she asked, trying to do a proper-sounding accent without crossing her eyes and dissolving into giggles, as often happened.

Indy's brows were furrowed at her now, however. "Was there a reason you dumped that drink all over that new girl?"

Gypsy opened her mouth only to close it again. Er. Um.

"For...science?" she replied slowly.

Indy gave her one of his looks. "...uh-huh. And what science would that be?"

Gypsy tried to casually look down at her paper, pretending to go back to checking. "Oh, you know. The...really important...experiment-y science...kind of science." She slapped her hand against her desk at a revelation. "Social experiment! Yes. A social experiment." She nodded like that was what she'd been going for all along.

Indy still didn't look quite all that convinced. "So...you're going to be throwing drinks at a lot of people."

"Um...yes." She glanced around, then noticed her own water bottle at the side of her backpack. She promptly snatched it up and unscrewed the cap.

"See!" she said triumphantly.

"Gyp—"

Water splashed Indy directly in the face.

He closed his eyes for a second before giving Gypsy an irritated look and swiftly getting up to go dry off before class started. Gypsy grinned and waved after him.

Once he'd left the classroom, Gypsy abruptly leaned back in her seat with a small _phew_ to herself. Then she straightened back up, brought her notebook out, and clicked open her rainbow pom-pom fuzz pen in a serious fashion. Time to start brainstorming on how to trap another mermaid.

* * *

" _Ask her if she likes to talk to dolphins_ —Gyp, how are _any_ of these ideas supposed to sound even remotely not-suspicious?"

Gypsy and Suzi were both over at the Vargases' villa, sitting out on the swinging bench on the wrap-around porch. They'd been going over ideas for probably only about 10 minutes, but already Suzi seemed frustrated.

"I mean, it's not _that_ hard of a problem," Gypsy insisted. "We just have to get her where we're all alone around a lot of water. Then splash."

"Yeah, which might be easier if she didn't have the personality of a rabid tiger shark," Suzi grumbled.

"She's not _that_ bad."

"Coming from you, Gyp, who thinks Ty, Drew and Clayne aren't 'that bad'."

Gypsy gave a huff. "You could at least try to warm up to her, Suze. She _is_ one of us."

"Technically, she's not until we figure this out," Suzi muttered.

"All the more reason to get back to thinking!" Gypsy said cheerily. "Now, I was thinking about just asking her to a party of three at the beach…"

Suddenly, Gypsy's cell phone started ringing. Gypsy began to search through her bag.

"'Part of Your World'? Really, Gyp? Could you be any _more_ obvious?"

"What?" Gypsy asked innocently. "I like Disney." Finally locating the device, she pulled it out and answered it without looking at the caller ID. "This is Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, how may I help you?"

" _Hey, Gyp."_

Gypsy perked up. "Oh, hi, Indy!"

She glanced over at Suzi when her friend made a cutting motion across her throat with her hand. She was giving her a ' _say no to whatever it is'_ look.

" _I was gonna go for a dive, did you wanna come?"_

"Um…" Gypsy looked over at Suzi again. "I'm kind of already doing something with Sue. But...maybe another time?" Suzi was practically glaring at her.

" _Oh."_ There was a pause on the other end of the line. _"Yeah. Sure. I'll see you later."_

Gypsy told him goodbye before hanging up.

"You shouldn't have even answered the phone," Suzi muttered.

"Why wouldn't I? It was just Indy," she said, stuffing her phone into her back pocket.

Suzi gave her a sidelong look. "You know there are certain things we can't mention to him, Gyp."

Gypsy hardly ever rolled her eyes in actual annoyance, but she did now. "I still don't see why we shouldn't tell him about the 'new development'." She put air quotes around her words. "He's _Indy_. Why would he make a big deal about it?"

"Because it _is_ a big deal, Gyp. I'm still not sure why you can't see that."

Gypsy gave a huff before getting up, idea journal and pen still in hand, and stalking over to the front door. "I'm going to go have your mom's nispery bachachas."

"...it's _nisperos de batata_."

" _Whatever_."

Sweets helped her think (or maybe she just liked any excuse to eat them), and Suzi's mom seemed to always have some kind of weird Puerto Rican dessert in the kitchen that was strange and awesome and delicious. Mrs. Vargas wasn't currently in the kitchen, but Gypsy helped herself to the plate of sweet potato balls.

She wasn't really mad at Suzi, just upset at the situation. She _never_ used to lie to Indy. In fact, Gypsy had never really been one to lie to anyone, so ever since all the mermaid business had happened, she just hadn't felt herself. For multiple reasons.

Suzi came into the kitchen then. She came over and sat by her as Gypsy shoved _batata_ ball after _batata_ ball into her mouth.

Sometimes she stress-ate, stop judging.

"Indy will be okay, Gyp. He's a big boy, he won't let it get to him just because you can't spend every waking moment with him. We all have to sacrifice things because of this."

Gypsy gave a small sigh. She popped one last _batata_ ball in her mouth. "I know." She shook herself a bit and flipped her dreads back and away from her face, getting back into her focused mode.

"So Daquiri. Let's just go to the beach with her, or something. Everyone loves the beach! Sand, surf, all the cute little seagulls running around trying to steal your food…"

Suzi snorted a bit. "I think the seagull affection is just you. As for Daquiri...I think the beach is the opposite of a place that she would _willingly_ hang out at as a mermaid." She frowned. "In fact, based off the conversation I had with her in science, I doubt she'd willingly _hang out_ with anyone, mermaid or not. I don't know how we'd even get her anywhere to trap her."

"Pfft, well that's not _that_ hard to solve." Gypsy shrugged. "In that case, we'll just follow her around 'til we find a good place."

"...Gypsy, that's called _stalking_ people. And it's usually fairly noticeable." Suzi raised a thin dark brow at her. "Especially when you have rainbow hair that can be spotted a mile away."

Gypsy waved Suzi off. "Psh, it can't be _that_ hard. We avoid getting noticed as mermaids, why not as regular people?"

"Probably because we don't go around _following_ people as mermaids."

Gypsy crossed her arms. "Well, do _you_ have a better idea?"

Suzi hesitated for a moment, then let out a sigh. "No, I guess not," she admitted, albeit in a bit of a begrudging tone of voice.

"Then stalking it is!" Gypsy cheered triumphantly, pointing a finger dramatically in the air. "We should start first thing!"

"Tomorrow," Suzi corrected. At Gypsy's quizzical look, Suzi gestured to the door. "Well, do _you_ know where Daquiri lives?"

"...right." Gypsy was slightly disappointed.

"We'll pick it up after school tomorrow," her friend assured. Then she nudged Gypsy. "For now, wanna go for a swim?"

Gypsy grinned. "If I didn't, I wouldn't have a tail.

Suzi gave her a sidelong glance as they got up. "That is definitely not the reason you have a tail."

"Oh, let's just go."

* * *

"This was a beyond horrible idea."

Gypsy gave a huff as she plopped down on the sidewalk bench next to Suzi. "It's only been barely two days," she pointed out, though not with as much enthusiasm as she usually had.

"Yes," Suzi agreed staunchly, "two days in which we've managed to get questioned for 'suspicious behavior' by locals, get forced to freeze-lock ourselves in the café bathroom because _some_ mermaid is a hothead who can't keep her powers under control, _and_ now Indy is probably seriously concerned for our mental states of being because he _keeps coming across us following the stupid new girl around._ "

"If it makes you feel any better, I think Indy's always been concerned for my mental state of being."

Suzi only glared at her.

"I don't even know why this is so hard," Suzi grumbled. "I mean, it's pretty obvious by now and all we have to do is splash her, it's not rocket science."

"I really wouldn't say it's science at all," Gypsy said thoughtfully.

Suzi glanced at her. "No," she agreed wryly, "I'd say we _have_ gotten that much figured out." She shook her head. "We should just splash her and follow her like we _should have_ done the other day."

Gypsy frowned. "She might just use her powers against us before we can explain. She's kinda...touchy."

Suzi snorted loudly. "You _think?_ " Then for a moment she tensed at the sound of a noise starting up. When she glanced behind them, she scowled. "I hate it when they turn those on."

Gypsy glanced back to see the sprinklers were now up and running. Some of them sprayed over the path and onto the asphalt, where apparently the gutter wasn't working very well because the water ran in a rivet down into the middle of the parking lot road, beginning to form a pool.

"At least they're not over here," Gypsy said with a shrug. "And besides," she added with a grin, then holding up her hand, "I can do this." She concentrated a moment, and then suddenly the water was spraying in a different direction. She giggled.

Suzi just rolled her eyes. "Cut it out, Gyp. Someone might notice."

Gyp stuck her tongue out at her friend. "You're no fun." Then she perked up when she noticed something. "Hey! Here comes Daquiri!" She bounced up, grabbing Suzi by the wrist and yanking her over to the other side of the road where the student cars were parked. "We gotta hide!"

"Gypsy, there's not even anywhere to _trap_ her around here."

Suzi's words were ignored, however, as they were already crouched down behind an SUV. Gypsy peeked her head up to look through the windows at Daquiri, who wasn't too far away now.

"She's coming this way!" Gypsy whispered loudly.

Suzi rose a bit to see above the truck as well. "Gyp, that's because she is heading _straight_ this way," she hissed.

"Act natural!" Gypsy squeaked. She dropped her backpack and began rummaging through it, then pulled out her math textbook and opened it to a random page. She casually leaned against the side of the car.

"Gypsy, what are you—"

Then the SUV began blaring its alarm.

"Ack!" Gypsy yelped, jumping in surprise and accidentally dropping her text book. She scrambled for a few moments to pick it back up, while Suzi spewed some probably-not-very-nice-things in Spanish and the car alarm continued to blast.

"Gyp, let's just _go_."

"But wait!" Gypsy stood on tip-toe, trying to see around the car. "Where did Daquiri go?"

"I'm right here."

The car alarm abruptly stopped.

Gypsy and Suzi turned to see the short redhead standing behind them, her arms crossed and her expression not-very-happy.

"Oh." Gypsy paused then gave a little wave. "Heeeey, Daquiri. We were just…" She glanced down. "...doing math!"

Suzi gave her a short glare.

"I want you two to _quit following me_ ," Daquiri snapped. "I don't know what you want, but you've been about as inconspicuous as singing walruses."

"I _told_ _you_ this was a bad idea," Suzi said through her teeth to Gypsy.

"Hey, I was practically _invis_ —"

" _What_ was a bad idea?" Daquiri snapped again.

Gypsy glanced at Suzi. "Well, we were trying—"

"Gyp, you can't just _tell_ her."

"But we—"

" _What?_ " Daquiri took a step closer. "Tell me _what?_ " She was practically steaming now.

Gypsy looked over at the sound of a car coming down the road they'd crossed from the parking lot, speeding away like the driver just really wanted to get out now that the school day was over. Well someone had somewhere they wanted to be.

Then Gypsy's eyes widened a bit. "Daquiri, watch o—"

Before she could get through her warning, the car sped through the sprinkler puddle she'd noticed earlier, kicking up the spray and sending it flying through the air.

Right towards the three girls.

Daquiri let out a short gasp as water splashed her in the back, and Gypsy and Suzi flinched as drops spattered them as well.

The three girls all stared at each other for a split second.

" _Move_ ," Suzi hissed at them both, shoving them forward.

All three of them ran.

* * *

Daquiri let out a grunt as she fell to the ground almost as soon as they made it behind the bushes at the edge of the parking lot. She hadn't really had time to wonder why Suzi had told them to move, or why they'd both run with her. Her main focus had been getting out of view from where the entire school could see her. As for Gypsy and Suzi…

Daquiri looked over her shoulder a bit and her eyes widened.

Both of them.

The three of them.

They _all_ had tails.

Daquiri stared.

"Um." Gypsy was the first to speak. "Surprise?" She looked at Suzi then. "Told you it would work."

Suzi muttered something under her breath in what sounded like Spanish.

"Both of you…" Not really sure what to say, Daquiri trailed off.

"Yeah, yeah, we're mermaids, too," Suzi grouched. "Stop staring at us like we turned into hippos or something."

"I'm not sure if that would be considered more far-fetched or not," Daquiri replied wryly.

Suzi raised an eyebrow. "You calling me fat, new girl?"

Tempted to say 'yes,' Daquiri opened her mouth to reply, but Gypsy beat her to it.

" _HAH_ , mermaid hippos." Gypsy exploded into giggles. "Just every full moon—you'd just get fat—and it'd be like—like WUB."

Daquiri and Suzi both stared at Gypsy, who was now almost literally rolling on the ground laughing.

"...wub?" Suzi asked slowly, though by the look of her expression, this type of conversation wasn't entirely out of the ordinary when it came to Gypsy.

Gypsy rolled over onto her back and slapped her tail against the grass. "WUB!" She just kept laughing.

Daquiri and Suzi exchanged glances.

"Your friend is weird."

A sigh. "I know."

Then suddenly Daquiri did a double take at the laughing Gypsy. "Uh. What happened to Gypsy's hair?" The girl's normally rainbow-colored dreads had turned into long, golden curls, even longer than Daquiri's own hair. It probably went halfway down her tail.

Suzi glanced over at her friend. "Oh, that. It's Gyp's natural hair, back before she dyed and dreaded it. It always happens when she transforms, though we're not entirely sure why." She snorted. "How Gypsy figured out how to continue dying her hair without water, however, I'll never know."

Daquiri gave another glance at the girl's blonde ringlets, trying to get used to the look. "Interesting."

Finally Gypsy managed to take a breath. She leaned back her head and looked at them upside down. "Aren't you going to zap us, Daquiri?"

Daquiri furrowed her brows at the now-blonde. "Excuse me?"

"You know." Gypsy flipped herself over back onto her stomach. "Your powers."

"The ones you can't seem to control," Suzi said flatly.

Ignoring Suzi's barb, Daquiri raised her eyebrows. "What, you mean the exploding drinks? I...wasn't sure what that was. I'm not sure how I did it."

"Oh, it's easy," Gypsy said. "You kinda just hold out your hand and...boom. Magic." Gypsy held out a hand, palm open, as if to demonstrate.

"If you know how, why don't _you_ two do it," Daquiri grumbled, trying to sit up in a more comfortable position.

"Because our powers are different, _elle tonto_ ," Suzi muttered.

Daquiri didn't understand the Spanish, but she figured it wasn't a compliment. She glared at the girl. "Well, what _are_ your powers, then?"

Gypsy raised her hand like an excitable Kindergartener. "I can move water! Like a _Jedi_." She grinned.

"And I freeze things," Suzi said simply. "But the drinks you blasted—they were hot when we checked."

Suddenly, all three of the girls transformed back into their regular selves. Daquiri gave a sigh of relief.

Gypsy stood up stretching. "Well, that was a fun reunion. But we can go work on your powers now!"

Daquiri raised her brow as she stood up. "We? I don't think so." She turned to make her way out of the bushes. "I need to get home."

"What?" That was Suzi's voice behind her. "After all that, you're just gonna _leave?_ "

Daquiri paused and looked over her shoulder. "Was I supposed to do something else?"

Gypsy opened and closed her mouth. Then, "Well...you're one of us now."

Daquiri looked at the girl for a moment. "Just because we all have tails," she said, her voice quiet but firm, "doesn't make me one of you." She turned back around. "I have to go."

* * *

At home, Daquiri couldn't get herself to concentrate on anything.

She'd practically had a heart attack the other day when Gypsy had so purposefully dumped her drink on her. She couldn't figure out why or how, but she'd realized that somehow the girl _knew_. And then she and Suzi had started following her around.

While a part of her had still denied that they could have known anything, another part questioned _why_ they would suddenly be so interested her, after such a supposedly coincidental "accident" as the one in the hallway.

She'd expected they'd somehow known, yes.

She hadn't expected them to _share_ the secret.

Now, she was stuck somewhere between feeling relieved and like a whole new and complicated weight had been placed on her shoulders. Yes, she had recognized that she had no one to confide in when it came to this new problem in her life; that hadn't meant she'd been asking for complete _strangers_ to share the struggles with.

Daquiri looked up at a small knock at the door. Her bedroom door opened before she could say anything.

She frowned at seeing who it was. She wasn't in the mood to talk. "Arak—"

"Ri, don't tell me to go away," Arak cut in. "You've been _avoiding_ me lately, not just being your usual unsocial self."

Daquiri pressed her lips together for a moment before looking back down to her desk where her chemistry homework lay. "I've just been adjusting, Arak."

"Daquiri." Her brother's voice sounded frustrated. "You've barely even talked to _Fox_. You really expect me to believe you're fine?"

The feeling of her secret pressed against her throat, but she didn't say anything. In fact, even if she'd wanted to, she didn't think she'd be able to make herself come up with the words.

"Riiiiii!"

Daquiri looked up again at the voice of her little brother, who then came zooming into her room.

"Fox, I thought I told you to keep Batman and Robin company." Arak kept his voice playful, but Daquiri detected the strained note in it.

She made a slight gesture and Fox bounced over and up onto her lap. Daquiri wrapped an arm around his waist and looked back at Arak with a slight raise of her brow. "You were saying, Arak?"

She had to keep herself from smirking at the dirty glare sent her way that Arak was trying to cover up. He let out a slow breath through his nose like he was trying to keep from being irritated. Or sounding like it in front of Fox, anyway.

"Buddy, I need to talk to Ri alone for a few minutes," he explained to Fox, though keeping his eyes on Daquiri's.

"But we haven't played all _week!_ " Fox complained, his face turning into a pout. "It's like I haven't seen her in a hundred years!"

Part of her was amused by Fox's exaggeration, but the other half felt guilty since his first point was true. She'd been so caught up in trying to hide her new "side" that all she'd really done was hole herself away in her room all week.

Fox's outburst seemed to only solidify Arak's own sentiments. "I haven't seen much of her either, bud," her older brother agreed, eyeing Daquiri. "Do you think she'll tell us what's made her so busy all of a sudden?"

Daquiri tried not to stiffen since Fox was still on her lap. She abruptly stood up, shifting Fox to carry him in tow. "You know, I think we should make up lost time now. What do you say, bud?" She began walking away from Arak towards the door.

" _Ri_ —"

"We'll be outside if you need us," she interrupted, giving him a look over her shoulder.

"Daddy!"

Daquiri immediately halted at Fox's exclamation, turning her head back to see their father had practically materialized just outside her doorway.

"Hey, kids," he said, a bit of a smile in the corner of his mouth. He had a beer in his hand, but his voice was normal; he was still completely lucid.

Daquiri and Arak didn't say anything. Fox, still in her arms, bounced a little. "We're going to play outside! Will you play with us, Daddy?"

Daquiri shifted a bit uncomfortably at Fox's question, not looking at their father.

"Maybe, Fox," he said with a chuckle. He sounded like he was being more of his normal friendly self like she remembered him being a long, long time ago, but Daquiri could never tell when he was being sincere or not anymore.

"I just came in to talk to Daquiri," he said. He stepped forward and ruffled Fox's hair a bit. Daquiri had to force herself not to jerk her little brother away. "Why don't you give us a minute and go play with Arak?" her dad added.

Daquiri looked over at Arak uneasily, not exactly feeling comfortable at the idea of being alone with their dad. Arak immediately understood her.

"I needed to talk to Ri about something already, Dad," he cut in, walking over to her side. "Can you talk later?"

Daquiri almost expected their dad to get angry at that, but he only raised a sandy-blond eyebrow at his son. "Normally parent is priority over brother in this house, Arak." It wasn't exactly a threat, but their dad's voice was stern and firm as a rock.

Daquiri could see Arak's fists clenching out of the corner of her eye, but after several seconds he broke eye contact with their father. "Yes, sir," he muttered. He caught her eye for a moment, conveying that he wouldn't be far away if she needed him.

Steeling herself, Daquiri kept her head up and her face emotionless, not letting herself come off as unsure. She didn't need Arak worrying about her. She'd be fine.

Surprisingly, her dad actually didn't close her door after Arak and Fox left. It didn't exactly make her any less suspicious, but it was still a bit relieving.

"So what do you want," she asked flatly, turning away to go back to her desk.

She couldn't see his face, but she heard the disapproval in her dad's voice. "Watch it with your tone, Daquiri."

"And why should I?" she snapped back, rifling through a stack of papers on her desk, still not looking at him.

"Oh, multiple reasons," he said, the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice. "I'm your father. I raised you to act better. It's a bad example for Fox. You still live under my roof with my rules." His list of justifications only pissed her off more.

"I have very good reasons to nullify _all_ of those."

"No reason gives you the authority to disrespect me, Daquiri. I am not just your father, but also a city officer, and the force _demands_ respect. From everyone."

"Your job has _nothing_ to do with this," she snapped over her shoulder. "It's not like being a cop ever made _Mom_ respect you."

She tensed at a hand on her shoulder. It wasn't a grab or even forceful, just firm and authoritative. That didn't necessarily stop it from sending a prick of fear through her like a bolt, though.

She waited for him to do something. Not knowing what he was going to do was actually almost worse than him hitting her. After several moments that felt like minutes had passed, however, he finally spoke.

"Your mother...had her own issues to deal with. That's why she left you three with me."

"I wish she'd taken me with her," Daquiri snapped at him, before jerking her shoulder away and making her way for her door.

"Daquiri, do _not_ walk away from me."

 ***** "Then stop trying to get me on your side like it's actually worth _being_ there," she said, her voice rising a notch.

"Daquiri, I said _stop_."

She let out a small noise of surprise when her wrist was grabbed and she was yanked back around to face her dad. She looked up at him and chillbumps involuntarily shivered down her spine. His expression was somewhere between angry and looking like he was making a vain attempt to calm down.

"You know," she said quietly, "at home, you aren't a cop—just a terrible father."

His grip tightened a bit, and he opened his mouth to say something, but Daquiri clenched her fist.

She really hadn't meant for his beer bottle to explode. She was just trying to make it hot enough to distract him.

Instead, the alcohol went all over both of them.

"What the _hell?_ " her dad yelled, letting go of both her and the bottle.

Backing away, Daquiri turned and hurried into the hallway bathroom, locking it behind her. She managed to grab a few towels before she transformed and flopped to the ground.

It was only a few moments later that she heard Arak's voice at the door. "Ri? Are you okay?"

Then a fist pounded on the bathroom door. "Daquiri! Open the door!"

She heard Arak make an angry comment to their dad, which was only followed by more unintelligible arguing.

She sighed.

And she also smelled like beer.

She thumped her head onto the floor.

* * *

Daquiri took her time making her way down the caves with the crystals. Even though she'd only been here a few times, it was already becoming easier to navigate the passageways, almost by memory. She wondered if she'd ever be able to do it in the dark.

When the passageway opened up into the pool cavern, Daquiri wasn't entirely surprised to see Gypsy and Suzi. They were sitting together at the edge of the pool, apparently in the middle of a conversation, but they turned in surprise when she walked in.

"Daquiri!" Gypsy exclaimed. She looked happy to see her, though Suzi looked like she was doing her best not to look disgruntled. She wasn't doing a very good job of it, though.

"You two are screwed if you can't even hear _me_ before coming in," Daquiri said dryly.

Suzi snorted. "Oh, please. No one besides you would be able to make it here, anyway."

Daquiri raised an eyebrow. "Not when there're those lights. Anyone who bumps into the wall can get in here."

Suzi rolled her eyes. "Shows how much _you_ know."

"She's still new to this, Sue," Gypsy cut in, shooting her friend a look. Then she turned back to Daquiri. "Only we can make it light up. You know—" she looked around suspiciously, like someone else was secretly hiding behind the outcrops of rocks in the cave,"—us _mer_ people," she finished, whispering loudly. "It's another one of those magic-y things we don't really understand."

Daquiri looked back behind her at the caves entrance. "Weird."

"But you're here!" Gypsy said, bouncing up and over to her excitedly. "We can—!" Gypsy paused when she was next to Daquiri. She wrinkled her nose, then her eyes widened. "...have you been _drinking?_ " she asked, her eyes as big as saucers.

Suzi suddenly seemed a lot more interested in the conversation.

Daquiri, on the other hand, was trying not to swear under her breath.

"Uh, no. My dad left a beer out and I was trying to...practice on it." She looked down at her skirt, picking an imaginary piece of lint off of it. "It accidentally blew up."

Suzi made a muffled snorting sound, which was obviously her trying to hide her laughter. Daquiri glared at her.

" _Anyway_ ," Daquiri said through her teeth, "I came here to practice instead."

Which was only half true. She came here for two reasons: because being in the house while her dad and brother were fighting was probably second on her list of least favorite things to do, and because she had sort of been hoping she'd find the other two mermaids there. She was rather surprised she'd never run into them here before now, actually. But she figured that they might be able to help her get control over her powers more.

...and after that, she was hoping she'd be able to figure out the rest of this mermaid stuff on her own.

"Well, great!" Gypsy grabbed her arm and pushed her over to the pool. "We can help teach you! Right, Suzi?" Gypsy gave her friend a rather meaningful look.

Suzi returned it with a bit of a bored expression. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever."

Seeming to ignore her friend's lack of enthusiasm, Gypsy plunged straight into the 'lesson'. "So, last time you exploded things, you were like, _super_ TOed, right?"

Daquiri gave Gypsy a bit of a sidelong glance. "Yeah. I guess."

"And were you super TOed when you blasted the other drink?"

"No," she lied, maybe a bit too quickly. She paused a beat. "I was just alone when I did that."

Gypsy pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, bringing her hand up to stroke an imaginary beard for a rather comical-looking effect—made more so by the fact that she was completely serious while doing it. Then she waved her hand in a "no big deal" way. "Okay, well, either way, you just gotta be _superchill_ when trying to do it. Like, go all lotus-position or something."

Daquiri's eyebrows had all but disappeared underneath her bangs at Gypsy's scattered explanation. She glanced at Suzi for a translation.

Suzi sighed and gave a small eye roll. "You need to lower your emotional state when using your powers. Since you're still _inexperienced_ —" Daquiri tried not to scowl at the emphasis Suzi put on the word, "—it would seem your powers work off of unstable emotions when you're not in control."

Gypsy furrowed her brow at both of them. "Isn't that what I just said?"

Daquiri could see Suzi going in for another eyeroll, so she stepped forward. "I'll just try it," she cut in. She just wanted to get this done as quickly as possible.

Holding out her hand, she tried to concentrate on the water in the pool. Slowly, she closed her hand into a fist. She felt silly doing it while Suzi and Gypsy watched her, especially because nothing was happening. Daquiri frowned, glanced down at her hand, and tried again. Still, nothing.

"We've got a real prodigy on our hands, Gyp," Suzi said dryly.

"I'd appreciate actual useful commentary," Daquiri snapped at her. All at once, the pool started bubbling.

"You did it!" Gypsy practically cheered.

"Not really," Daquiri grumbled. She glared at Suzi. "Not _willfully_."

"Not my fault you're a hot-head," the Latina retorted.

"Oh, you want to see what a _hot-head_ looks like?" Daquiri challenged, raising her hand.

"You'd like to try," Suzi snorted, holding up her own hand, palm out. "Good luck _controlling_ anything."

"Guys, quit it!" Gypsy stepped between them, then looked at Daquiri. "You gotta chill, remember?"

" _I_ can help her with that," Suzi cut in, the hint of a sneer in her voice.

" _Not_ helping, Sue." Gypsy rounded on friend in the first show of irritation Daquiri had ever seen her display. It seemed to consequently do the trick on Suzi though, who just gave a small huff and flicked her wrist in the direction of a random rock. A thin sheeting of ice spread over it, giving it a frosted appearance.

"Just heat the stupid water," she muttered, walking over to the other side of the cavern.

Gypsy frowned in a bit of a pout in Suzi's direction. " _Indy_ would help," she shot at her, before crossing her arms and turning her back to her friend to face the pool again.

Daquiri's brow was furrowed slightly at the argument, though she wasn't one to get into other people's business. That kind of thing was normally pretty low on her care level. But then, she also didn't understand part of the problem.

Joining Gypsy back at the rim of the pool, she glanced at the girl with a quizzical look. "Why isn't Christopher here, anyway? I thought he was—"

"THAT'S IT!" Gypsy announced all of a sudden, interrupting Daquiri. The girl whipped back around, her dreads flying. "Suzi! Ice the Moonpool!"

Raising an eyebrow, the Latina gave her friend a dubious look. "How is that supposed to help _heat_ the pool, Gyp?"

"It'll give her something to focus on," Gypsy insisted. "She'll have to turn the ice back to water before she can boil it, so it'll happen gradually. It'll, y'know, like…" Gypsy looked up at the ceiling, looking for a word. "Regulate it?"

Suzi quirked an eyebrow at her.

Gypsy waved her hand at her. "It'll totally work, believe me. Just do it."

Suzi just shrugged a bit. "I guess it can't make her worse." Raising her hand, a thin sheet of ice grew over the surface of the pool with a flick of the girl's wrist.

Choosing to ignore her comment, Daquiri lifted her hand again. "So...melt the ice?"

"Yup!" Gypsy agreed brightly, bobbing her head up and down in what Daquiri figured was supposed to be an encouraging way.

"Right," Daquiri muttered. Trying to concentrate, she pressed her lips together and stared at the ice covering the water. _Focus,_ she told herself. _Stop using emotions._

Slowly, she began to curl her fingers.

The ice darkened, then slowly began to melt from the middle outwards. Daquiri kept up the gradual increase of temperature until the ice was completely gone and the water bubbled gently, steam rising into the air. Then she let her hand drop.

"It worked!" Gypsy cheered, bouncing over to her excitedly. Without warning, she clamped onto Daquiri in a hug.

Daquiri immediately stiffened, but she didn't instinctively push the girl away like she normally would have. Anyone else she probably would have smacked, but Gypsy actually reminded her a lot of Fox—the excitable, naïve demeanor of a little kid. It was kind of hard to push away someone like that.

"Yeah," Daquiri said, giving a short, rather awkward pat to the girl's shoulder. "Thanks." She paused for a beat. "You can let go of me now, Gypsy."

Pulling away at her bidding, Gypsy grinned at her. "Now that we're done with that, we can all go swimming!"

"Ah." Daquiri glanced down at the pool—Gypsy had referred to it as the "Moonpool", which made sense, what with the skylight where the moon passed over—then over at the entrance back into the passageways. "Not really into the whole swimming thing. I need to get home."

Gypsy was immediately in her way when Daquiri tried to make a getaway for the caves, however.

"What do you _mean_ you don't like swimming?!" she demanded, sounding like even the idea of it personally offended her. "You're a mermaid! That's like, the best part!"

Daquiri took a step back, trying to regain the personal space she had lost due to Gypsy being less than a foot away from her face. She scowled. "I never said I don't like swimming itself. I'm just not super gung-ho about doing it as a fish."

"Have you even _tried_ it yet?" Gypsy persisted.

The scowl stayed apparent on her face, but Daquiri pursed her lips at the question. "...no," she said slowly. _And wasn't really planning on it_.

"Then you _have_ to come with us! It's amazing!" Gypsy grinned at her. "It's impossible not to love."

"She's got a point there," Suzi agreed with a shrug.

Daquiri frowned, still not sold on the idea. "I really need to get home."

"Pleeeease?" Gypsy practically begged. By the way she was going on about it, Daquiri was almost surprised she wasn't down on her knees. "We can just go for a little swim!"

Daquiri gave a doubtful look at the pool. "I don't—"

"Oh, for Pete's sake." Suzi strode over to the pool, bent down, and cupped some water in her hands.

Daquiri gave her a strange look, which turned more alarmed when the girl walked over to her. She started to take a step back. "What are you—"

Daquiri open and closed her mouth in a silent gasp of surprise when Suzi splashed the water all over her.

"What the _hell?_ " she demanded, trying to brush the water off of her, even though the damage had already been done.

Suzi gave her a bit of a sly smile. "Time for some mermaid initiation." With that, she dived into the pool.

"C'mon!" Gypsy said excitedly, grabbing Daquiri's hand and tugging her towards the pool. "Being a beached whale is no fun!"

Daquiri almost commented on the girl's choice of wording, but then she started to feel the tingling. Well. Gypsy _was_ right about falling on your face not being fun.

Looking back at the caves with reluctance, and still with a bit of a scowl, she took a breath, and dived into the pool.

She hadn't been in the water since her fall earlier in the week, but being in it now, it somehow felt more...comfortable. Like this was her element and she was meant to be in here. She looked down to see her mermaid form, surprised to see her tail churning water back and forth as she treaded water as if it were instinctual. It was a rather strange sight.

"You made it!" Gypsy said cheerfully, treading water next to her. Her long blonde locks had once again replaced her colorful dreads and were floating around her like a halo. Suzi surfaced next to her.

"About time, too," she said, her voice a bit dry.

"A little warning would have been appreciated," Daquiri said through her teeth.

"Oh, get over it and follow us," Suzi said with a roll of her eyes. She ducked back under the water and glided out through the underwater entrance.

"It'll be great," Gypsy told her with a toothy grin, before following after her friend.

Even though she still had her doubts, Daquiri figured since she was already in here…

With a sigh, she gave the cavern one last look before ducking down under the water and swimming out through the underwater cave.

Daquiri's ears were filled with the muffled thundering of the waterfall, but she stayed below water when she saw the other two hadn't surfaced ahead of her. She mimicked their motions, using her whole body to move herself through the water. It was amazing how fast her tail propelled her along.

Daquiri's eyes settled to Gypsy when the girl looked over her shoulder at her and pointed ahead of them. Daquiri furrowed her brow at her, not sure what message she was trying to convey. She was startled out of her confusion, however, when both of the mermaids suddenly sped up in a flash of bubbles.

She supposed Gypsy had meant that she wanted Daquiri to follow them, which she could only figure meant the speed-swimming was an ability she'd also acquired that apparently didn't require as much concentration as her heating powers. Pressing her lips together, Daquiri sped up her swimming pace and suddenly she was torpedoing forward after the other two mermaids.

It was actually...kind of amazing.

She found herself not feeling the need for air, though she just kind of...sensed that she couldn't actually breathe under water. No gills, so she supposed she was like any other mammal of the sea. Interesting how that worked.

Daquiri slowed her swimming pace when she realized Gypsy and Suzi had stopped up ahead of her. They both motioned up, and she swam up with them to the surface. She took a breath out of habit when her head surfaced, but in reality she almost felt like she didn't _need_ to. It was a strange, but rather exhilarating feeling.

"So, was it what you expected?" Suzi's voice was cool, but her dark eyes still sparkled from their swim. Daquiri was pretty sure she hadn't seen her looking actually...sort of happy like that since she'd met the Latina.

"It's...nice," Daquiri admitted. She'd always rather liked swimming—when she wasn't drowning—but this was something else.

"Nice? _Nice?!_ " Gypsy repeated, practically spluttering. She did a backflip in the water, going full circle before coming back up. "It's totally freaking _awesome,_ that's what it is!"

Daquiri's mouth curved up slightly in a bit of a smile. "Yes, Gypsy."

"What's that?" Suzi raised her eyebrows, a tinge of amusement leaking onto her expression. "The rabid tiger shark can smile?"

Daquiri dropped the look. "Sharks can't actually be rabid."

Suzi snorted and rolled her eyes simultaneously. "She's practically Indy," she muttered to Gypsy before ducking back beneath the surf.

"That means she likes you," Gypsy clarified helpfully.

It was Daquiri's turn to snort. "Doubt that."

Gypsy splashed at her playfully. "You'll fit into the group great!"

Daquiri attempted to make her grimace look more like a smile at that, but Gypsy didn't seem to notice either way. The girl dived back beneath the waves, her tail flipping up before she disappeared completely into the water.

Daquiri looked out at the horizon line where the sun was beginning to set, letting out a sigh a Gypsy's words. She may have had her not-so-literal wish granted of someone else to confide to about her new mermaid life, but as far as 'fitting in' went?

She wasn't so sure about that.

* * *

 **A/N:** ***** "Like, ehmagosh Dad, stop trying to rule my life! Screw you Dad, I'm going to go jump off a cliff again and spy on that giant in my English class."

Daquiri walked out of the room, holding both middle fingers up proudly and inexplicably wearing sunglasses.

[End Chapter]

 _ **#NailedIt**_

^ My friend's "helpful" attempt to make me finish the chapter at this point in the story. Made me laugh enough that I thought it was worth mentioning.

Anyways~that's it until next chapter! Hope you all enjoyed this read, and please leave reviews! I love reading them!

(I'm pretty sure there's always more things I keep meaning to say in these author's notes, but I keep forgetting them when I upload. Oh well.)


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Well, I think I was a _little_ earlier with this one? Maybe? Eh, whatever, it's here. A tad shorter than normal, but here nonetheless. Oh, and this chapter's title has a double meaning that you may or may not get~ :D

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 4| OUTSIDER**

Taking a deep breath, Daquiri ducked back below the waves, tucking herself into the motions of a somersault to turn herself around and dive deeper. She opened her eyes, still expecting to wince at the feeling of saltwater in her eyes; but just like the past few times she'd gone out swimming, it felt just as natural to open her eyes underwater as it did above it. She smiled a bit to herself, before shooting off through the water.

Embracing the whole mermaid-thing had begun to get easier. Avoiding water while on land was still just about as annoying as anything, but ever since Suzi and Gypsy had conned her into taking an actual _swim_ , it had become her favorite go-to for alone time. Being able to go out in the middle of the water and just... _exist_ , floating there with nothing but sea creatures for miles—it was like heaven. She'd started coming out here all the time just to get away from everything else.

Daquiri finally slowed her speed at random, coming down to a normal, leisurely swimming pace. She fanned her hands out to stop her motion, floating in one spot to look around her.

There were fish everywhere. Surprise, surprise. There was a lot of coral and rocks around, too, along with other plant life in general, which was pretty usual for a lot of the ocean parts she'd been in so far.

The rusting hull of a boat was not so usual.

Curious, Daquiri slowly swam over to it. Half of it was obscured by where it had apparently fallen into a fairly shallow trench. Upon closer look, and even through all the barnacles clinging to the side, she figured it must have been the bow poking up. So wrecked ship. Cool.

She swam closer to where the cabin of the boat was, and where the glass from the windows had completely broken away from their frames. From the looks of it, this thing must have been sitting here for quite some time. She poked her head in to look at the interior.

Bubbles escaped from her mouth as she tried to let loose a string of swear words out of habit, and she immediately covered her mouth at the sound it made, small as it was. She used the railing of the boat to help her duck down.

There had been a _person_ in there. How was she supposed to swim away without the chance of them seeing her now?

Slowly, she lifted her head to peek over the rim again, using one hand to try to keep her hair down. As long and red as it was, it would not help to have it flaring up around her like a beacon. Her eyes tracked the slow and steady movements of the person, decked out in full diving gear. She could only see their back, but from the stature and hair, the person looked to be male. It looked like he held something in his hands, but she couldn't quite make out what it was.

Then he turned around.

She quickly ducked down before he could see her.

But not quite before she could see him.

Christopher. It was _Christopher_ of all people. All the way out here, in the middle of nowhere-ocean.

How...just... _how?_ What were even the _odds_ that he would be the one she'd find out here?

...and what the heck was he even doing?

Swimming around the perimeter of the boat, Daquiri came up from the back where she could get a different angle and hopefully be more obscured from the boy's point of view. She studied the box-like thing he was holding in his hands. It had a handle on either side where he was holding it from. Then suddenly, a flash went off.

She ducked down instinctively out of surprise. She'd never really seen an underwater camera before, but she didn't really have to to realize Christopher was holding one. So, he was down here at some random part in the ocean taking pictures of an abandoned, wrecked-up boat for no real reason she could find apparent.

The only thing that _was_ apparent was that meant there wasn't just the possibility of him seeing her—he could also come up with actual proof of it.

Great.

Moving angles again, trying to follow the path that Christopher kept his back to, Daquiri watched him carefully, trying to look for a way she could escape without the fluke possibility of him accidentally seeing her. At the moment, he just appeared to be taking random pictures of the wreck around him. Then something else seemed to catch his eye, and Daquiri ducked down as he began to swim out of the cabin. After a moment or two, she peeked back up.

She couldn't see him.

Craning her neck, she carefully swam around the side of the boat. Still no sign of the boy. How the heck had he disappeared that fast? She didn't want to start swimming away until she had a pinpoint on his position.

She swam up to the part of the ocean floor where the boat was resting, then when she still couldn't see him, recklessly swam further out from behind her hiding place. Finally, she saw him floating out more towards the bunches of coral, focusing the attention of his camera on some fish by the looks of it. Ergo, probably distracted enough that she'd be able to make her getaway.

All of a sudden, Christopher turned around, his eye still to his camera.

Which he then pointed almost straight at her.

Oh, _sh_ —

She darted to the side, back behind the coverage of the boat, her heart beating fast. He had seen her. He had _totally_ seen her. How could he not have? The only thing that she could hope for was that he hadn't recognized her, and that he hadn't gotten a very good picture. If she wasn't continuing to still hold her breath right now, she'd have been breathing hard. She had to get out of here before he came looking for more pictures.

Swimming back into the dip of the trench, she followed the rut back in the direction she'd come from. When she thought she was a decent distance away where Christopher wouldn't notice the noise, she took off at top speed through the water.

If he'd gotten a picture...she didn't know how she was going to explain this to Gypsy and Suzi.

* * *

"New batch, guys."

Daquiri looked up as Christopher dropped a stack of photos onto their lunch table.

Oh, crap.

"Went out diving yesterday and found a new wreck," he said as he sat down. "Haven't edited any yet, but I printed out the ones I liked."

"Ooh!" Gypsy immediately picked up the stack of photos and started shuffling through them.

Daquiri nervously looked down at her food and poked it around, having suddenly lost her appetite. Would he mention it? What if it wasn't one of the ones he'd brought? What if he was going to... _publish_ it or something?

She had to force herself to not steal the pictures out of Gypsy's hands and search until she found it.

"What's this one?"

Daquiri tried not to visibly cringe. Here it was.

Christopher tapped the table, in what Daquiri supposed was cue for "set it down", but Gypsy just turned it over to face him. Daquiri didn't want to look.

"Oh, that's just the pulley system. Was probably a fishing boat."

Daquiri almost breathed an audible sigh of relief.

Letting the picture flutter to the table, Gypsy moved on to the others, continuing to sift through the different ones. Suddenly she stopped at another one, and her eyes widened.

"Indy, what is _that?_ "

She was so dead.

Once again having to motion to be shown the picture, Christopher gave it a quick once over. "Sea hare. It's a type of slug."

Gypsy snorted. "Then why'd they call it a sea _hare?_ Stupid marine biologists."

Christopher gave her an amused look, and Daquiri continued to hold her breath as Gypsy continued on. Suzi began to study a few of the stray ones, though she didn't make any comments.

There were only a few left in the pile, and Daquiri had begun to think that he must not have gotten the picture after all. Or at least, he hadn't brought it…

"This looks weird." Gypsy squinted her eyes at the picture she was holding, then cocked her head practically in a 180 like that would help her see it better. "Indy, what is this thing?"

Still as patient as ever, Christopher tapped the table again to see. This time, Gypsy handed over the photo.

Studying it, Christopher frowned. "I dunno. Some fish, I guess. Must've snuck into the background when I took it. The focus is supposed to be the Bocaccio, though." He tapped his finger on a clearly rendered fish in the foreground.

"Lemme see," Suzi said, taking the photo out of his hands. Her eyes searched over it, then stopped when she seemed to spot something. Her face grew grim.

Carefully setting the picture down on the table, Suzi stood up. "Gypsy," she said tightly, "can I talk to you for a sec?" Despite directing the question at her friend, however, Suzi was glaring none too inconspicuously at Daquiri.

Daquiri glanced at Christopher, who was giving the two girls an odd look as they got up and started to leave. "We'll be right baaaack!" Gypsy sing-songed, before being pulled along by Suzi. They disappeared out the side door of the cafeteria.

"And they're gone again," Christopher muttered, more under his breath than anything. She raised an eyebrow at that. Then he glanced up at her for a moment, before awkwardly looking down at his food. Daquiri could've sworn she saw his shoulders hunch down even more than they already normally did.

After a straight minute of awkward silence, Christopher began to shuffle the photos scattered around the table back into a stack. After a moment, Daquiri started collecting them too, making sure they were all facing their correct ways. She handed them to Christopher when they were both finished, and he nodded at her for the help.

A beat passed.

"...nice pictures," she said. She glanced down at the stack. "They're pretty good."

Christopher flashed a quick smile. "Thanks," he said simply.

More awkward silence.

Daquiri looked over to the doors where Gypsy and Suzi had left to see if they were coming back yet. She saw no sign of them.

"Do they...do that a lot?" Daquiri finally ventured.

Christopher frowned in the direction of the doors before glancing back down to his plate. "Only lately," he replied. It sounded like he was trying to answer casually, but Daquiri could detect the slightly strained note to his voice.

Lately, as in ever since Gypsy and Suzi became mermaids.

"Girls are weird," Daquiri said vaguely.

Christopher gave a small smirk at that, though he gave her a bit of a strange look.

She just shrugged. "I always thought so."

He didn't question her, though he still looked a bit bemused.

Daquiri stayed silent after that, continuing to pick at her food. She wondered what was taking the two so long…

* * *

"Gypsy, we _both_ know what was in that picture." Suzi cut straight to the chase once she and Gypsy were alone.

"We do?" Gypsy chirped innocently. At the moment, Suzi couldn't tell if she was only pretending to be oblivious or not, but she didn't exactly care either way.

"A fin _that_ big and _bright green?_ " she hissed. "It was obviously one of our tails, and it sure wasn't either of _ours_." Then she paused. She gave Gyp a look. "It _wasn't_ yours, right?"

"Uh..."

" _Gypsy._ "

"Hey!" Gypsy held up her hands. "I don't _think_ it was. I mean, sometimes I follow Indy out when he goes diving..."

"You do _what?_ " Suzi snapped. She swore, sometimes she wasn't sure Gypsy even understood the _definition_ of 'secret'.

"I'm always careful," Gypsy said defensively. "I've been going diving with Indy since he started it. I know how he works, he'd never see me. Besides," she insisted, "I didn't follow him yesterday. I didn't even know he was _going_ yesterday." Then her face screwed up like she was giving that fact some serious thought. "You know, he hardly ever goes when I don't know about it..." she said, though more to herself. Suzi ignored it; she didn't have time to pay mind to every little insecurity of Gyp's.

"So it's clear then—it was obviously Daquiri's tail." Suzi scowled. "I knew we couldn't trust her with this."

Her friend shrugged. "I don't think it's that big of a deal. I mean, Indy doesn't even know what it is. It's not like he's suspicious."

"That's beside the _point_ , Gyp. Daquiri clearly doesn't take this seriously enough to be careful about not blowing our secret. She's going to put us _all_ at risk."

Gypsy poked her with a tangerine dreadlock, and Suzi gave her an annoyed look, which Gyp promptly ignored. "Don't you think you need to... _chill_ a little?" Gypsy giggled at her own pun, but Suzi just rolled her eyes.

"Not when one of our _group_ is an idiot," Suzi grumbled. "I mean, what was she even _doing_ spying on Indy?"

Gypsy just shrugged. "Maybe she thinks diving's interesting?"

"She's a mermaid. She can _dive_ whenever she wants to," Suzi deadpanned.

Her friend grinned. "Then maybe she just wanted to watch him. I mean, let's face it—Indy's like, the greatest."

Suzi snorted. "We can talk about your infatuation issues later." Tightening her ponytail, she let out a short breath through her nose. "Right now, we need to have a serious talk with Daquiri."

"Aw, right now?" Gypsy looked behind them at the double doors into the cafeteria, even though she couldn't have been able to see through the window from where they were standing. "But what if they're bonding?"

At that, Suzi snorted. "Gyp, this is _Indy_ we're talking about. And Daquiri, for that matter. We might not know much about her, but I do know two things: _he_ hates talking and _she_ hates people. One of them is probably hiding under the table by now."

Gypsy gave her a sideways glance.

"Indy," they agreed simultaneously. Which sent Gypsy into a fit of giggles, but Suzi just gave a short snort and smirk.

"C'mon," she said, "lunch is probably almost over by now."

Gypsy followed her back into the cafeteria, still giggling here and there, and back over to their table. Indy immediately looked relieved when he saw them.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Making new friends?"

Indy gave her a look right back. "I always make friends," he replied dryly.

This only sent Gypsy spewing into more laughter, which earned her a look of her own from Indy, though this one looked more amused than the one he'd given Suzi. Once her laughter died down again, though, he looked between the both of them with a slight raise of his own brow.

"You know, telling me I need to edit a picture is a lot more rational than storming out of the room because of a blurry fish." His voice was wry and only half serious, but Suzi read his underlying question.

She gave him a rather flat smile. She opened her mouth to respond, but then the sound of the bell went off.

Suzi almost didn't catch the slight frown Indy made at the intercom, but she was glad for the interruption anyway.

"Daquiri and I should head to class," Suzi announced. Daquiri gave her an irritated look, which Suzi promptly ignored.

"Oh yeah!" Gypsy brightened. "Indy, Ax told the _best_ story the other day and I wanted to—"

"Gyp, we were going to tell Daquiri about that one thing," Suzi cut in.

Gypsy glanced between her and Indy. "But—"

"Come on," she snapped. Suzi gave a huff when she realized Daquiri had already gathered her stuff and started walking away by herself, and she grabbed Gypsy's arm so they could catch up. "You can tell him about it later," she told her hurriedly before ushering her friend along.

Gypsy looked back at Indy with a wave and a rather disappointed-sounding, "See you in class," before Suzi dragged her away to catch the redhead.

"Daquiri!" Suzi called. She speed-walked with Gypsy until they were finally walking at the girl's side. "Daquiri," she said again, lightly touching the girl's arm.

" _What?_ " Daquiri snapped, finally turning her head to glare at Suzi, but not slowing down from the pace she was walking.

"You should know what," Suzi snapped right back. " _You_ were in Indy's picture."

"Big deal," Daquiri replied flatly. "He just thought it was a blurred fish."

"Do you even want to _try_ being a part of this group?" Daquiri's apathy about all of this was only grating against Suzi's nerves more.

"I am _not_ part of your group," Daquiri snapped. "I thought I already made that very clear."

"Then why were you sitting with us?" Suzi pressed, an underlying jeer to her tone.

"Because I was practically dragged to your table by Gypsy," Daquiri replied dryly.

"That's true," Gypsy giggled.

Suzi rolled her eyes.

"Either way," Suzi continued, "there's still the question of why you were even watching Indy dive in the _first_ place."

Daquiri visibly bristled. " _That_ ," she growled quietly, "would be because neither of you told me that he _dives_ in the first place. And I wasn't watching him," she added vehemently. "I was trying to get away from him without him seeing."

Suzi snorted. "You did a _great_ job there."

"This is _not_ my fault," Daquiri snapped back.

"Guys!"

Gypsy stepped in front of both of them. Neither Suzi nor Daquiri were very happy to halt their angry speed-walking, but Gyp appeared to ignore the disgruntled looks they shot her. "Indy hardly even _noticed_ Daquiri's tail. So no harm done, right? You know he dives now—" Gypsy pointed at Daquiri, "— _you_ can tell her where he usually dives—" Gypsy diverted her point to Suzi, "—and _I_ can get back to Indy now. Okay?"

It seemed Gypsy was just going to leave them there since she turned around at that, but then she suddenly halted.

"Hey, girls."

They'd reached her and Daquiri's chemistry class at that point, and several kids were passing by into the classroom, but one of them had paused in front of them. "Gyp, Suzi," Kalen greeted with smile. "And Daquiri." He winked in the redhead's direction, smile still intact, before continuing on into the classroom.

Gypsy had immediately frozen upon sight of the kid. "Hi, Kalen," she squeaked as he disappeared through the door, her greeting too late for the boy to hear. She practically deflated when he was gone, glancing back at Suzi and Daquiri.

Suzi frowned at her.

"...I'm gonna go to class now," she said. "Bye!" she chirped quickly before zipping down the hallway.

There was a short huff, and Suzi glanced over at Daquiri as she walked past her into their classroom. Suzi caught up with her again.

"Why did Kalen wink at you?"

Daquiri gave her a strange look. "Because he's a guy?" She phrased her answer more like a question, like it should've been obvious.

Suzi rolled her eyes. "Oh, and I suppose it's normal for _every_ guy to wink at you?" she asked sarcastically.

That got her another look, but this one was more irritated. "Actually, yeah," she muttered.

Suzi snorted. " _Brat_ ," she coughed.

Daquiri had already begun to walk over to her own station, but she halted at Suzi's jab. Suzi crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow as the short redhead turned back around to face her.

"I don't care if we both happen to be the same _weird_ mermaid freaks," she hissed at Suzi in a low voice. "That _doesn't_ mean you know anything about me. So stop trying to pretend like you do."

Suzi stared down at her. "You're right," she said, her voice icy. "You don't make any sense. Just a few days ago you went swimming with us and were practically happy as a clam. Now you're back to being a _queja_. Whatever happened?" Suzi's tone was tinged with a sneer, and Gypsy would probably be unspeakably mad with her if she was still here right now, but Suzi didn't particularly care. This girl was about as bipolar as a magnet, and it had gone from being a splinter under her skin to a whopping pain in the neck.

Daquiri's face was tight with anger. "Maybe," she said quietly, "it's because _you're_ being a _b—_ "

Their argument was interrupted by the sound of the bell, announcing that class had officially started. Daquiri gave her one last withering look before heading over to her seat.

Suzi pressed her lips together as she eyed the rather _friendly_ way Kalen greeted the redhead, before walking to her own lab station right next to Daquiri's.

Forcing herself to stop staring, Suzi looked away with a sniff. They could have each other.

She was done with trying to include Daquiri in the group. The girl had made it very clear where she stood with them, and Suzi wasn't about to go out of her way to change the other mermaid's mind.

Daquiri could go jump off a pier for all she cared.

* * *

"I have returned!" Gypsy announced, plopping herself down in her seat next to Indy. "Miss me?"

"I wept for a fortnight," Indy deadpanned.

"You would, too," Gypsy said, sticking her tongue out. "Without me you'd just be a hermit living with bears."

"What a tragedy that would be," Indy said wryly, but with a slight smile. Then he shifted slightly in his seat. "So, what was all of that about back in the cafeteria?"

The smile fell from Gypsy's face. "Oh," she said, hoping she didn't sound as nervous as she felt. "That. Um. Well...See, we were just talking about, uh—"

Suddenly the bell rang for the start of class. Gypsy did an internal fist pump. "I'll tell you later!" she squeaked before turning to the front of the room, pretending to be engrossed in whatever they were going to be discussing in class today. She avoided looking at Indy at all; she hated lying to him, and could never really get herself to do it to his face. Or at least, _well_. She'd have to tell Suzi to come up with a better excuse for it later.

She could tell Indy was frustrated with her and Suzi, and had been for a while now. She also knew he would probably never specifically address it, however, just because of the way he was; which only made her feel guiltier.

She tried to ignore the guilty feeling for the rest of class, though, and when the bell finally rang for the end she shoved the guilt out of her mind completely and practically sprang out of her seat, ready to go.

"So guess what!" she said excitedly as Indy gathered his things, a bit more slowly than she had.

Indy raised his eyebrows at her in response.

" _He_ talked to me before class," she said, her face beaming.

Indy's eyebrows stayed lofted. "I could respond better if I knew who 'he' was, Gyp."

" _Kalen!_ " she squealed. She bounced a little as she followed her friend out of the classroom. "He said 'hi' to me," she said proudly. " _Before_ saying hi to Suzi and Ri!"

She couldn't see Indy's face, but his voice was rather neutral. "Well, most people do that. It's a rather common greeting."

Indy's steady logic didn't deter her excitement, however. "But he _noticed_ me. I mean, he totally could have just ignored me, but he stopped and said hi!" Thinking back to the moment, she smiled. Then she paused as a thought occurred to her. She shoved herself in front of Indy, walking backwards with a serious expression on her face. "Do I look okay?" she demanded.

Indy gave her a bit of a smile. "You look fine, Gyp."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Gypsy gave a sigh of relief. Then she cocked her head. "Indy, do you think he would like me?"

Indy paused, his expression seeming to contemplate for a moment, and then he opened his mouth to reply—

"Gyp!"

Gypsy perked up at the sound of someone else calling her name and spotted Suzi. She waved over at their friend before turning back to Indy. "By the way, _we_ need to hang out," she insisted.

Indy smiled. "Yeah. Seems like it's been a while."

"It's been _forever_. So tomorrow after school, you, me, and pizza."

Indy laughed. "Sounds good."

"Gypsy!" Suzi was walking with them now. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Uh, well Indy and I—"

"Did you want to go to the mall after school?"

Gypsy thought for a second. "I do need more spray paint. Wanna come eat pizza at the mall, Indy?"

"No, that's okay. We can just hang out some other time, Gyp."

Gypsy frowned. "Why can't we do both?"

Indy smirked. "I don't want to get between two women and their shopping."

Gypsy snorted. "And what do _guys_ do if they don't go to the mall?"

Indy shrugged. "Oh, you know, manly things. Going to the hardware store. Punching sharks."

Gypsy dissolved into giggles at that. "If your next picture isn't of you punching a shark, I'm going to be extremely disappointed." She turned back to Suzi then. "So Daquiri's coming too?"

Suzi's face immediately soured. "I am not going _anywhere_ with that _que—"_

Indy coughed over Suzi's insult. Suzi shot him a dirty look. "You know what I mean," she grumbled.

"Why don't you want Ri coming?" Gypsy asked, her eyebrows furrowing. "I thought we worked things _out_ before class." She gave Suzi a bit of a pointed look.

"Apparently not," Indy quipped. Gypsy didn't give him a very appreciative look for that.

He smiled a bit, then raised his eyebrows. "So...why are you guys so obsessed with the new girl again?"

Just then, the bell went off.

Gypsy looked up at it. "Oops."

"About Daquiri—" Indy tried to ask again.

"We're late! We're late! For a VERY IMPORTANT DATE!" Gypsy ran down the hall laughing before Indy could finish his question.

Yup. Smooth dodge of that bullet.

* * *

When Daquiri was in a bad mood, it was hard for her to get out of it. So even by the end of the day, she was still stewing over her spat with Suzi, and she wasn't particularly enthusiastic to be met with Arak trying to make conversation with her on the way to pick up Fox.

"—and he actually drank the entire thing because Henry dared him to. He ended up running to the bathroom after, and all of us were dying."

Daquiri wasn't really paying attention to Arak, and his voice continued to into the background until it registered he was saying her name. She looked over at him.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "You were supposed to laugh. Or, you know, make some kind of condescending comment about how gross boys are."

"Oh." Daquiri looked away again. "Hah."

"You weren't even listening to me, were you."

"I don't really feel like talking, Arak."

"Something happen at school?" he asked.

"If I say 'no,' will you drop it?"

"Probably not."

"Then no."

Arak sighed. "Why do I feel like you never tell me anything anymore?"

Daquiri glanced back over at him with a raised brow. "You mean I used to?"

Arak snorted, but his amusement wasn't quite genuine. "I think you know what I mean, Ri. Ever since we moved here, you're more closed off than you ever used to be."

"Hormones," Daquiri said flatly, crossing her arms.

"Not buying it."

"Do you really have to know _everything_ , Arak?" Daquiri said, her voice sharp. "Why can't you just leave it alone?"

Arak was quiet for a moment. "Ri," he said carefully, "ever since Mom left—"

"I don't want to have this conversation."

"Ri, we've _never_ talked about it," Arak argued.

"For good reason," Daquiri snapped back. She gritted her teeth. "There's no point in talking about it. She's gone, and she's not coming back."

Her brother didn't seem to have much of a response to that, and she hoped that was the end of it.

"It's good to talk about things, Ri," Arak spoke back up again, his voice quiet. "You were just a kid then, and—"

" _You_ were just a kid, Arak!" Daquiri's voice rose a bit in anger now. "We were _all_ kids. Don't act like you have some great insight on everything because you were a whole _two years older_ when you know it hurt both of us _just_ as much."

Arak looked strained, like he was trying to keep himself calm. "The difference is that you have a way of keeping pain to yourself, Ri." He looked away from the road to make eye contact with her for a few moments. "And I don't think it's healthy for anyone, including yourself."

Daquiri pressed her lips together tightly, not saying anything. Then, "Stop the car, Arak."

"What?"

" _Stop the car_."

"Ri—"

Daquiri opened her door.

" _Daquiri._ " It was lucky no one was immediately behind them, because Arak practically slammed on the brakes, pulling over to the side of the road. "What the _hell_ , Ri?!"

"I'm walking the rest of the way."

"Daquiri," Arak said, fumbling with his seatbelt as she got out and shut the door. "Where the hell are you going?"

Daquiri heard her brother's footsteps behind her as he caught up. "Fox needs to get picked up," she said flatly, ignoring his question.

"Ri, why can't you just _talk_ to me?" Arak's voice was beyond frustrated, and he put a hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged it off. "I just need to be alone, Arak. And you can't leave the car running on the side of the road."

Arak paused in his pursuit, seemingly conflicted, but Daquiri didn't look back. Like she'd said, she just needed to be alone right now.

"We're going to talk about this later, Ri!" Arak called after her.

Daquiri ignored him and kept walking. She just wanted to go somewhere where there weren't people asking her questions or accusing her of something she wasn't.

Even though it was technically the reason causing all these problems, it was times like these that Daquiri was glad she was a mermaid.

She ran in the direction of the sea.

* * *

 **A/N:** Touchy insane little Ri and touchy insane and little. But ha~ did any of you actually think Indy was a merman? Trollololol. Nope. He doesn't know a thing! :'D Also, censoring swearwords with Spanish FTW!

Thanks for reading! A review and/or follow/favorite would be much appreciated. ;-)


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Uploading a bit late, because freaking FINALS. Ugh, show week. You don't wanna know about it. Don't be an art major unless you want no life. Anyways, you'll have to forgive me for uploading late, because I have a bit of a surprise for you coming soon...could it be extra chapter uploads? Gasp? [Shh it wasn't because I wrote Chapter 6 before finishing this one I swear]. Heh, I think I'm also upping this to a Teen rating...because of reference to lady things. xP Maybe I should just make this Teens in general, huh? Anyway, no one wants to hear me ramble.

AxelTheBunny: Here is your more Indy. Enjoy.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 5| BEACHED**

"Ri! Ri! Ri! Ri! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake u—"

Daquiri groaned as she was rudely awoken by a squeaky voice and her little brother jumping up and down on her bed. " _Fox_ ," she grumbled. She glanced over at her bedside clock, blinking at the neon blue numbers. She bit back another groan. "I still have fifteen minutes, why are you up, Fox?" she mumbled, trying to pull the covers up over her head but having a hard time of it with Fox sitting on them.

"Arak said we can go to the beach after school today! Can we go, can we go?!" Fox shook her shoulder with each question for emphasis.

Daquiri was suddenly rather awake. She sat up a bit. "The beach?" she echoed, rubbing an eye with the heel of her hand. What was Arak, psychic? The beach was the _last_ place she wanted to go.

"Yeah!" Fox said excitedly with another bounce. "We can go, right?"

Daquiri shifted in her bed, not wanting to be the bad guy here, especially when it came to Fox. "I dunno, Fox. I'm probably going to have a lot of homework this afternoon. We might have to do it another day."

The smile on Fox's face fell a bit. "Oh," he said, sitting back a bit. "Can you do homework after?"

"Maybe," she said carefully. "We'll have to see."

"Okay," Fox said. He was trying to hide it, but his heart was constantly on his sleeve and Daquiri knew he was disappointed. It took a good amount of willpower to not just cave.

"C'mon," she said, leaning forward and giving him a kiss on the head. "Since I'm already up, I'll go make you some breakfast. Okay?"

Her little brother grinned at her, but it lacked its usual genuine excitement. Daquiri pushed away the feeling that jabbed at her and got herself out of bed.

Her dad was in the kitchen already fully dressed in his uniform with his morning coffee when they got out there, but she ignored him. She started getting things out for breakfast.

"G'morning, Daddy!" Fox plopped himself down on the seat next to their dad.

"Hey, squirt," she heard her dad say. She waited for the pan to heat up.

"Are you going to catch bad guys today?"

Their dad chuckled a bit. "I do what I can, Fox."

 _Go catch yourself_ , Daquiri grumbled inside her head. She cracked an egg on the side of the pan, trying not to let her anger get the better of her and accidentally smash it instead.

"Will you throw in some for me, Ri?"

Daquiri paused for a moment, her grip on the spatula tightening. She took a breath and told herself not to be petty. She cracked two more eggs in without a word.

"Daquiri, I asked—"

"I did," she snapped, interrupting him. She bit her tongue a bit. "I did," she repeated, making her tone more even.

There was a bit of an awkward pause. "Good," her father answered simply.

Man, she wanted to punch him.

She finished making the eggs and made some toast along with it before putting it out on the table. She was glad to see her dad had to run with the breakfast so he wouldn't be late, however, and she relaxed at the table once he had gone.

"Are you mad at Dad, Ri?"

Daquiri stiffened a bit. "Why would I be mad at him?" she asked her brother, trying to keep her tone light.

Fox just shrugged a bit, looking down at his plate. "I dunno. You just sounded kinda mad."

Daquiri breathed out a silent sigh. She, Arak _and_ their dad tried to keep Fox a fair distance away from the crap that happened in their family. Her and Arak did mostly to shield him, though she figured her father's reasoning was more along the lines of Fox couldn't keep his mouth shut about _anything_. Her little brother was honest to a fault, and while she found it a good quality, it made certain things difficult—like keeping a certain Secret.

"I'm just a bit tired is all," she told her brother, taking a bite of her eggs. "Nothing to worry about."

"Well you two are a dreary looking bunch for someone going to the beach today."

Daquiri turned a bit at the sound of Arak's voice. She bit back a sigh, not wanting to have to explain to him why she couldn't go.  
"Ri says we can't go today," Fox piped up.

Arak gave her a look. She looked away. He was getting as bad as their dad was when they were little.

"Is that so?" Arak said, sitting down across from her. "Ri?"

Daquiri gulped down the rest of her orange juice. "I need to go get ready." She stood up, put her dishes in the sink and began to retreat to her room.

It didn't take Arak long to follow her.

"You're going with us to the beach, Ri. I don't really care what your excuse is."

"Homework."

"You can do that afterwards."

"I'm on my period."

That gave her brother pause. "...uh."

"You asked," she said with a sniff, rummaging through her closet for something to wear.

"But you have those, uh…" Arak gestured. "Tampon things."

Daquiri rolled her eyes. "Why do we have to go to the _beach_ , Arak?"

Her brother frowned at her. "What do you mean? You've always loved swimming, Ri."

She turned around and crossed her arms. "Yeah? And when was the last time you saw me swim?"

"...right after we moved here?"

"I _fell off a cliff_ , Arak." She turned back around. "I don't want to go swimming."

"Then don't."

Daquiri paused.

"Just come to the beach with us. Fox really wanted to go, and you can just stay on the shore." When she hesitated more, Arak laid a hand lightly on her shoulder. "C'mon, Ri. I'm really trying here. I just want us to be able to spend some time together, especially with Fox. Have some fun."

Daquiri sighed. Again with the family card. Dangit, Arak.

"Fine," she said. She took a blue floral romper off its hanger. "I'll come." She gave Arak a look. "But I don't want to go _anywhere_ near the water."

Arak smiled. "Fine. I'll go tell Fox."

Watching Arak leave, Daquiri paused, waiting until she heard Fox's excited response to Arak's news. Then she shut her door to change.

She sure hadn't gotten herself into anything good.

* * *

Daquiri shifted her position on the towel she was sitting on in the sand, switching her book to the opposite hand to give the other a rest. It had probably been almost an hour now, maybe a bit longer, since she, Arak and Fox had gotten to the beach. She had refused when Arak had tried to coax her into the water despite her declaration earlier that day, and especially when Fox tried to pull her into the waves to convince her to come swimming, saying that she wasn't in the mood and would rather just watch. Fox, of course, had been disappointed, and Arak still didn't look entirely convinced of her sudden phobia, but there was nothing she could do about it. She was here. That was the best she could do.

She had watched her brothers splash around in the waves for a bit, Arak trying to teach Fox different strokes while Fox mostly splashed his older brother and tried to jump on his head to pull him under the water. Then Daquiri had turned her attention to her book, and the time had started to go by faster. Now that she thought about it, she hoped she had put on enough sunscreen...the last thing she wanted was to go from paper-white skin to beet red.

With a sigh, she laid back against the ground, using her book to block the sun from her eyes as she continued to read. She stayed there like that until a call of her name made her look up.

"Riiiii!" Fox came running over, skidding through the sand and sending stray water droplets flying everywhere. Daquiri sat up when he neared.

"How's the water, bud?" she asked him, putting a finger in between the pages to hold her spot while she closed it.

"It's great!" Fox exclaimed, the excitement overly evident in his voice. "The ocean is so _cool!_ You have to come in with us, Ri!"

Daquiri mustered up a bit of a smile. "I don't think I'll be going in today, Fox. I'm okay right here."  
"But it's so _hot!_ " he said, his eyes widening. "You'll melt!" He threw out his arms wide for emphasis.

She smiled at her little brother's dramatic antics. "I think I'll survive okay," she said with a bit of a chuckle. "Why don't you go back in with Arak?"

"But I want you to come!" Fox said with a pout, his voice getting close to a puppy-sounding whine. "It's not as fun without you."

It was harder for Daquiri to conjure up a smile at that. "I'll have to go some other time, Fox." _Like when?_ she asked herself. _When he knows I'm a mermaid?_ She tried not to think about the fact that, with Fox being as naïvely oblivious and incapable of secrets as he was, she didn't think she would ever be able to tell him. Or at least, not until he was a lot older.

She wasn't sure how she was going to be able to stand keeping the Secret for that long.

"Ri!"

Daquiri looked over and saw Arak jogging up to them now. Oh, great.

"Are you ready to come in yet?" her brother asked, smiling down at Fox when he caught up next to him and ruffling his already mussed wet hair. "We've been having a blast out there, haven't we, bud?"

"Ri said she doesn't wanna go in! " Fox answered for her, turning to Arak.

That made Arak frown a bit. "Are you _really_ sure, Ri? The water feels great, you can stay in the shallow end, _I'll_ be there…"

Daquiri tried not to glare at Arak for implying that she couldn't take care of herself, even though she was already playing the fear card. "I'm just...not really in the mood to go swimming," she repeated, this time to Arak with a meaningful look. She didn't really want to bring up the cliff thing around Fox. "Why don't we do something else?" Shifting up to a kneeling position, she smiled at Fox. "What about building a sand castle, bud? Does that sound fun?"

"Ri…" Arak was giving her a look that was somewhere between concern and disbelief.  
Apparently he knew her better than to think she'd be scared by something like falling off a cliff.

"We can build a sand castle," Fox piped up. "Then you don't have to get wet, Ri!"

Daquiri started to give Arak one of her _own_ looks, but then Fox stepped towards her.

"C'mon! We can go build it over—"

"Fox!" Daquiri flinched backwards and jumped up as Fox tried to reach out and grab her wrist. She froze when Fox gave her a confused looked, and Arak's expression was somewhere between baffled and looking like she'd gone crazy.

"Ah," she stuttered, trying to amend herself. "Fox, you and Arak should...go dry off. I'm just going to go to the bathroom real quick." She flashed a smile. "I'll be right back."

She turned around and quickened her pace a bit off in the direction of the restrooms, hoping Fox would just do what she'd told him and not run after her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she glanced behind her and saw Fox now seemed to be distracted by throwing sand at Arak. Despite the circumstances, it made her smile a bit. She wondered if that was her little brother's version of "drying off".

Trudging through the hot sand in her bare feet, since she'd left without thinking to put her sandals back on, she untied and re-tied the swimsuit cover skirt for her bottoms around her hips, taking her time now that Fox was distracted again. She hoped both her brothers would be dry by the time she got back, otherwise she wasn't sure what other excuse she'd be able to come up with this time.

Happening to glance around her as she made her way for the hill the restroom buildings were perched up on, Daquiri noticed someone she recognized. How he kept on popping up everywhere she was, though, she apparently would never guess.

Daquiri switched directions and starting making her way over to the pier, where Christopher was currently getting out of a boat with what looked like some fishing gear. She walked down to the edge where he was bending over to reach for something in his boat.

Well, this was one way to stretch out the time.

She stood there for a moment, but he didn't appear to notice her coming up because he didn't turn around.

"Hey," she said, her voice somewhere between blunt and trying to come off as at least sort of friendly.

She was a bit surprised when the boy jumped in apparent surprise at the sound of her voice, and whipped around to face her. Her brows furrowed together when he jerked back at the sight of her. He seemed to flounder for a moment as he tried to find his balance again, but then he took one step too far.

Christopher started to let out a surprised swear as he fell backwards, but it was abruptly cut off when he slammed into the bottom of his boat. Daquiri tried not to wince at the impact. The boat bobbed and swayed violently for several long moments, probably trying to decide whether it wanted to capsize or not from the sudden force. Christopher himself scrambled awkwardly on the bottom of the boat, she guessed trying to regain control of it so he _wouldn't_ end up in the water. When it finally settled down, Christopher sat still for a moment. He closed his eyes and took a slow breath, his cheeks tinged red. Daquiri was pretty sure it wasn't from the sun.

"...Hello," he finally said, looking at her with a rather sheepish smile.

Daquiri stared at him in return.

What had just…?

She wasn't entirely sure how to respond to all of...that.

So she just decided to ignore it.

For now.

She coolly looked around at the fishing supplies arranged around the end of the dock, then back to Christopher in the boat. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and kind of looked like he was a bit self-conscious about the fact, but Daquiri didn't really think anything of it. They were at the beach, after all, it wasn't like it was a weird thing to see. _She_ was even wearing a two piece suit, when she wasn't even swimming.

Resting her hands on her hips, she arched an eyebrow at all of his fishing stuff neatly piled around the dock. "You must really like fish," she said, her voice wry. She found it a bit ironic, how even his two best friends had become part of the sea he apparently spent all of his time in.

"I, uh." Christopher stumbled over his words, apparently struggling to find the right ones. "...it's what's around," he finished. Then he awkwardly adjusted himself out of the flopped position on his back and into a sitting one. Apparently he didn't actually plan on getting out of the boat now that he was there.

A couple beats passed with neither of them saying anything, and Daquiri's eyes glanced around for something to talk about. She spotted the fish bucket with its lid securely in place. "Did you catch anything?" she asked, gesturing to the bucket.

"A few small fish," he replied, scratching behind his neck.

She nodded before looking away again, the awkward silence once again ensuing. C'mon, Christopher, she needed an actual legitimate distraction to keep her away.

She glanced at the boat he was sitting in. The faded name painted onto the side of it made her quirk a brow. " _Piece of Ship_?" she queried.

Christopher paused at her question. "Sometimes I think I'm funny," he elaborated, though sounding rather unimpressed with his own life choices with her standing there asking about them.

The pun made her smirk a bit, however, though she couldn't think of any kind of productive thing to say after that.

She searched for more things to say, but came up with a blank. This whole distraction thing was really bombing. She tried to inconspicuously glance over at Fox and Arak real quick, but couldn't find them from the quick glimpse. She pursed her lips together. "So…"

"I'm not much of a conversationalist," Christopher said, sounding rather apologetic.

She gave a light snort, smirking a bit. "Oh really?" she said sarcastically. Christopher made a bit of an amused noise at that, but didn't say anything further. "I don't particularly like talking either," she offered.

When all he did was nod in acknowledgement before looking away again, she bit the inside of her lip. Um…

"Are you...in the water a lot, then?" she finally said, hoping that might be enough of a segway for _some_ sort of conversation.

His mind must have been on something else because her question seemed to catch Christopher a bit off guard. "Huh?—yeah. I guess so."

Daquiri leaned forward on her toes a bit and gave a nod. "I'm not much of a fan of swimming," she commented. A lie, but might as well make it clear now why she would never be going near the water around him.

Not that she ever expected to actually _be_ in that situation ever. She was fairly certain Christopher wouldn't want to go swimming with her any more than she wanted to go with him, especially if his current self-conscious, shirtless interaction was anything to go by.

"Uh, I didn't really like it much either," Christopher started, running his hands over his knees. "But, uh, Gypsy really wanted to try it—diving—when we were kids and, uh, I ended up really liking it, so, um…"

Christopher trailed off after his sudden talking spurt, seeming to lose momentum.

Daquiri didn't let it show, but she found his rambling rather amusing. "Gypsy can be rather persuasive," she said as a bit of a random input. She tilted her head a bit. "Have you guys...been friends for a long time, then?"

"Uh, yeah. Since we were little." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, moved down the street—er, she did. She moved here." Christopher shifted a bit, scratching his chin this time. "Uh, she just kind of…" Christopher motioned blankly, seeming to search for what he was trying to say.

"Wouldn't leave you alone?" she suggested, a slight smirk on her face.

"I was going to say 'dragged me along and said we were friends'," he said with a bit of a smile. "I understand she hasn't grown out of that," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"Yeah…" She toyed with some of her hair, twisting it around her finger. It wasn't like she could explain Gypsy's sudden attachment to her to Christopher. "I can't seem to get her off my tail," she said with a shrug.

Er. Great. Bad wording. She made a face. "Ah, trail," she amended hastily.

"Either one works," Christopher said with a bit of a shrug. "And I'm afraid you're stuck with her. Or at least during the school day," he said with a wry smirk.

"Funny," she muttered, "since I seem to keep running into her everywhere else, too." When the girls had been following her around trying to apparently catch her with her Secret, she had found them in the _weirdest_ places. She was just glad they hadn't followed her home.

"Right…" Christopher looked down at his hands for a moment, seeming to stick on that thought. "You...wouldn't happen to know what that was about, would you?"

Daquiri gauged her reaction for a split second before snorting. "I don't really know," she said, her voice dry. "I guess she just really wanted to be friends or something." She added a bit of a shrug for emphasis. "Pretty sure she thinks she's succeeded by now."

Christopher smiled wryly at that. "Oh, failure is never a remote possibility for her, I assure you."

"Comforting," she said with another snort. "She definitely—"

"RI!"

Daquiri whipped around at the sound of Fox's voice, seeing him running down the pier towards her. Rather than being dry like she had hoped, he was the exact opposite: his hair was a dripping mop and he left mottled wet puddles behind him as his feet slapped against the slats of the wooden dock.

She dodged when he tried to throw himself at her in a hug. "Fox," she scolded, "don't hug me while you're all wet." It pained her to reprimand him when normally she wouldn't have minded, especially in her swimsuit, but all she could do was let it go.

" _I_ think you need a _big_ hug!" her brother said, giggling with a mischievous look in his eyes.

Daquiri started to take a step back, worry pinging at her. "Fox, don't you dare—"

Suddenly, though, Fox seemed to notice Christopher sitting there. His eyes widened. "Woah!" he said. "You're _huge!_ "

Christopher gave a bit of a smile at her brother's exclamation. "So I hear."

"Are you a wrestler?" Fox asked, getting down on his hands and knees at the edge of the dock and peering at Christopher and into his boat.

"No," Christopher said with a laugh, seemingly amused by Fox's unabashed way of asking things.

"This is Christopher," she said hastily, jumping in before Fox said anything too brash. He might've been the cutest thing in the world, but his questions didn't always have the best filter. "He's someone from school," she explained to Fox.

"Are you in the same class?!" Fox asked excitedly, addressing Christopher.

Daquiri had never seen the boy smile so much. Though admittedly, Fox tended to have that effect on people. "We have a few classes together," Christopher said, his voice still amused.

"Which ones?"

"English and—"

Jumping up again, Fox interrupted Christopher. "You dressed up for swimming!" he noticed happily. "You should come swimming with us!"

Christopher's expression suddenly morphed into flustered. "I, well, actually—"

"It'll be really, really, _really_ fun!" Fox encouraged. "And you're all dressed and everything so you can totally go!"

Endearing as Fox's tendency to invite everyone everywhere was, Daquiri could clearly tell that swimming with a random kid was the last thing Christopher wanted to do. She opened her mouth to explain to Fox, but another voice beat her to speaking.

"Fox, you can't just run off like that," Arak scolded, coming up next to her. She glanced at her older brother with a bit of a frown. Great. She had been trying to avoid her brothers and now they were _both_ here.

Her frown deepened a bit more when Arak noticed Christopher in his boat and they waved at each other in acknowledgement. Did they somehow already know each other?

Arak, however, seemed surprised that _she_ was talking to him. "It's...Indy, right?" her brother asked the boy.

"Ye—"

Daquiri huffed in irritation in the middle of Christopher's answer. " _Really_ , Arak? You too?" She rolled her eyes. "His name is _Chri_ —"

"YOUR NAME IS INDY?!" Fox exclaimed, interrupting her with an absolutely incredulous look on his face. "Like Indiana Jones?!" he asked excitedly. "Do you have the hat and the whip and everything? Can I see?!"

Christopher gave a bit of a startled laugh. "Afraid I don't, but I do have the jacket," he informed.

"That's so cool!"

Christopher smiled again, though he looked like he wasn't sure where to go from there.

In the pause, Daquiri looked between Christopher and her older brother. "You two know each other?"

Her brother nodded. "Yeah, he's in my calc class."

Daquiri raised an eyebrow at that, but Christopher just nodded.

"Daquiri is my little sister," Arak explained to Christopher. She glared at her brother for referring to her as 'little', but Arak pretended not to notice. "If you're in my calc class, how come you know Ri?"

Daquiri almost winced at Arak's use of her nickname. Even though that was what her brothers referred to her as almost exclusively, especially Fox, she wasn't a huge fan of it. And she disliked it even more when it was used in front of people she hardly knew.

Christopher shifted a bit in his boat, seeming to be uncomfortable by Arak's question for whatever reason. "I'm actually in her grade," he clarified, glancing briefly at Daquiri. "I just, uh, have a higher math."

"He's in her _English_ ," Fox informed their brother.

"Is he, now?" Arak asked, keeping his tone amused for Fox. He glanced between her and Christopher. "And you two are...good friends?"

Arak was eyeing Christopher with one of his looks, and Daquiri immediately knew what he was doing. "Stop it, Arak," she hissed through her teeth, elbowing him in the side.

Arak blew off her reproaches, however. He looked over at her with a raised brow and a questioning glint in his eyes. "You know, I don't recall you ever having guy friends before, Ri." He played off his comment as being playful, but she knew what he was getting at and it was ticking her off.

So she overcompensated a bit.

"We're not friends," she said sharply. "In fact, _Arak_ , this isn't even any of your business so why don't you _go now._ "

She was glaring at her older brother with her arms crossed and didn't quite notice Fox jumping up and down so close to the end of the dock. "I'm friends with Indy!" he said in his usual over-excited way. "He's gonna go swimming with me!"

She saw what was going to happen out of the corner of her eye a split second too late.

" _Fox!_ " She and Arak shouted their brother's name together when he jumped into Christopher's boat almost squarely on top of the boy. The boat rocked wildly as it was suddenly thrown off balance, and she quickly rushed forward without thinking.

"Fox, are you—" She broke herself off with a gasp as water splashed up from the rocking boat and landed on her.

Panic lurched through her. She glanced around at her brothers and Christopher in all the commotion, knowing she couldn't dive into the water without causing a whole lot of suspicion or possibly even being seen.

Knowing she didn't have much time, she took off back down the docks, ignoring her brothers' surprised calls after her. She looked around hurriedly, having no idea where she could hide. The bathrooms were all the way at the top of the hill and they probably wouldn't be all that private anyway. Then she spotted a small shed-looking building. Praying it wasn't locked, she sprinted up to it and tried the door. She didn't even give herself time to sigh in relief when it opened, and she quickly shut herself inside of it. She fell backwards before she was able to click it shut, however.

"Ri!"

She swore under her breath at the sound of Arak's voice coming up.

"Ri, what are you doing in there?" His voice was a mixture of irritated and confused.

"Don't come in!" she said forcibly, maneuvering her tail to slam the door shut.

"What the heck, Ri?" Arak said, most likely curbing his language since Fox was probably with him.

"Ri, are you okay?" Yup, there he was.

"Can I just be alone for like, ten minutes?" she asked, trying to at least keep a reasonable tone as she used her powers to start steam-drying herself.

"What is the _matter_ with you, Ri?" came Arak's exasperated voice.

Daquiri tried not to groan. "Can we save that talk for later?"

She didn't even need to see her brother to imagine him rolling his eyes.

"Arak, I'm hungry."

Fox's declaration made Daquiri relax a bit in relief. Thanks for the distraction, buddy.

She continued to dry herself off as fast as possible without frying her tail into fish food, but she could hear Arak pausing in his frustration with her to refocus on Fox. He said something to her about coming back shortly, though at this point it almost didn't matter since she was almost completely dried off. She heard her two brother's voices fading into the squall of beach noise as she stood up.

She grimaced a bit.

Well, who knew what Christopher must think of her and her family _now_.

Cautiously opening the door to the shed, she stepped back outside hoping to not see anyone giving her weird looks like they had seen her running into the building like a crazy person. Luckily, no one seemed to notice her, and so she started heading for the main path up the hill. Maybe she could hide somewhere up there until they went home.

Daquiri was mulling over how she'd wished she'd had her sandals on if she was going to be walking around somewhere without sand when a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Hey, you."

She looked up at the friendly greeting and was surprised—and admittedly a bit disgruntled—to see Kalen from her chemistry class. She stopped where she was in the middle of the walkway.

"Hey."

"Fancy seeing you here," Kalen said with a lazy, lopsided smile that Daquiri figured most girls thought was attractive or something. Whether it was or not, she found _most_ things guys did annoying anyway. Especially if they were from guys like Kalen.

"Fancy that everyone from school seemed to show up at the beach today," she replied, her voice dry.

Kalen laughed a bit. "Yeah? You been hanging out with other guys all day?"

Daquiri crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one hip. "If by 'all day' you mean since school ended then—no." She glanced behind her. "Unless you count my brothers, but only one of those goes to our school."

Kalen raised a brow. "Younger grade?"

"Older. Might want to take a hint."

Kalen laughed at that. "I'm not very good at listening."

Daquiri gave him a rather unimpressed look. "I know. That's why I have to tell you to do everything in lab."

The boy grinned. "You going swimming?"

Well, at least making an excuse wouldn't be hard. "Not really into it."

Kalen arched his eyebrows in an amused expression. "And yet you're at a beach?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm here for my brothers."

Kalen looked her up and down, which Daquiri didn't really appreciate. "And I imagine that's why you're in a bikini?"

Daquiri made a show of slowly looking down at her two-piece, with the bottoms notably covered by a wrap-around skirt. "Last I checked this wasn't a bikini."

He smiled at her. "Might as well be."

That comment was enough to make her visibly frown. If he looked down at her chest, she swore…

That was when she noticed Christopher coming towards them up the path. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that she could use him as an excuse not to tell Kalen off.

Christopher slowed down when he came up to them. "Excuse me," was all he said.

Daquiri realized that with the walkway being bordered by a fence going uphill, there wasn't any way for Christopher to go around. She stepped back against the railing as much as she could, though from where she was on the path, it wasn't much.

Kalen didn't move at all. Instead, he looked Christopher up and down, much like how he had Daquiri. She wondered if it was just a bad habit of his or something. "Fishing?" he asked, referring to the pole and tackle box Christopher was obviously carrying.

Daquiri almost rolled her eyes herself, but all Christopher did was nod.

For whatever reason, Kalen seemed to take this as a sign to keep on talking to him, when it was clear all Christopher wanted to do was get past them.

"You catch a lot of fish?" he asked, his eyebrow slightly raised with a smirk hinting at his lips.

Daquiri did roll her eyes this time, leaning her elbows back on the railing and looking away slightly.

Again, all Christopher did was nod without a word, probably hoping that if he didn't say anything Kalen would lose motivation.

"Weird you can't catch a girlfriend then, huh?" Kalen looked over at her with an amused glint in his eyes, a teasing smile on his face.

Daquiri frowned back.

"Why do you think that could be?" Kalen asked with a laugh. "Maybe the smell? The—"

"Would you _shut up?_ " she finally snapped, getting fed up with the kid and his so-called _teasing_. "How do _you_ attract _anyone_ with that third-rate personality of yours?" She really hated people that loved the sound of their own voice.

Kalen opened his mouth in surprise at her, but then closed it again, apparently not knowing what to say. His eyebrows furrowed.

Daquiri crossed her arms, her face twisted into a scowl. "Now in case you forgot, he asked you to move _five minutes ago_."

Finally finding his voice, Kalen made an offended-sounding noise. "Well then, why don't I just _leave?_ " He sounded a bit angry.

"Bye," she said without missing a beat, raising an eyebrow challengingly.

Kalen gave her a bit of a startled look like he hadn't been expecting her to respond that way. He paused like he was waiting for her to take it back or something, but she only glared at him, her expression a stoic mask of annoyance.

He gave a small frown. "Fine," he muttered, giving a small eyeroll as he finally moved, walking past both her and Christopher down to the beach.

Daquiri glared after him a few moments longer. "Jerk," she said under her breath. Then she turned her glare on the boy still standing next to her. " _You_ need to stand up for yourself," she snapped.

Christopher blinked at her. "I...uh. Sorry?"

She crossed her arms and gave him a reproachful look. "You _do_ know you're a bear, right?"

Christopher seemed a bit muddled in response to that comment.

She gave an exasperated huff. "You _could_ have just pushed past him," she enunciated, pointing out what should have been obvious.

"I...think that's rude," he said, his tone rather passive.

Daquiri snorted. "Oh, and you thought _he_ was using his table manners?" she said, throwing her hand in the direction Kalen had gone off in.

Christopher shifted his weight a bit, looking uncomfortable. "Shoving him seems...uh…disproportionate."

Without warning, Daquiri stepped forward and shoved him hard. "Does _that_ seem disproportionate?" she snapped, trying to make a point.

The fact that Christopher didn't even budge may or may not have helped it.

The boy looked a bit confused. "Uh...yes?"

She rolled her eyes, her demonstration apparently having been lost upon him. "There're guys six inches _shorter_ than you that do a lot more," she said with an insistent gesture of her hand, trying to get him to see her point.

He apparently didn't, because he didn't respond.

She sighed. "And what if he had said that to me?" she said, switching to a different approach. "Or Gypsy or Suzi? Would you say something _then?_ "

That comment seemed to elicit a response from Christopher. "Of course I would," he said with a frown, no hesitation in his voice.

Daquiri tried not to facepalm. "Then why not stand up for _yourself_ instead of being a washcloth?" she reiterated, her tone's irritation level rising a notch.

"I…" Christopher faltered. "I-it's not that big of a deal, he just needed to move over," he said, sounding defensive.

"You wouldn't think he 'just needed to move over' if he said it to anyone else," she argued. He had just made it clear he didn't think Kalen was in the right, what the heck else was he missing? She huffed in annoyed frustration. "No _wonder_ Suzi can ditch you so easily," she grumbled.

Christopher's demeanor immediately shifted at her comment, and he glanced away down at the ground.

Oh, crap.

She hadn't meant to say that. Normally she didn't _care_ what affect her temper had on people, but—ooh. By the momentary expression on his face, she may have possibly just shattered some of his self-confidence.

Um.

She tried to backtrack. "Ah, that…" Great. How _was_ she supposed to backtrack from _that?_ "I didn't mean it like that," she amended, though it sounded rather lame even to her.

By the noncommittal noise he made, she had less than convinced him. He looked down at the gear still in his hands. "I, uh...should put these up," he said, his voice a bit quiet.

Daquiri paused, trying to figure out if she could make up for her blunder somehow. If Christopher made any indication of this happening to Gypsy and Suzi…

Well. They wouldn't be happy with her, to say the least.

A thought occurred to her. "Was there...anything else you needed to pack up?" she ventured.

"No."

Well. So much for trying to make amends.

When she didn't respond right away, Christopher turned to go.

"Hey," she said quickly, taking a small step forward without meaning to. She needed to at least _try_ to make him understand.

Christopher paused and looked back over his shoulder.

Daquiri hesitated for a moment, looking for the right words. "Gypsy and Suzi _want_ to hang out with you," she reassured. "Things are just...ah…" She mulled over her word choice. "Complicated." She looked him in the eye. "For them," she clarified. She didn't want him to get the idea that she was grouping herself with the two girls. For one thing, _she_ didn't even want to be part of their group, but with it also being apparent that Gypsy and Suzi had been avoiding Christopher more ever since they became mermaids, and them suddenly taking an interest in her...to Christopher's third party perspective, it couldn't have read very well.

Christopher's response seemed to be rather telling of that.

"Uh-huh," he said, seeming to agree with her more distractedly than anything.

She tried one last time. "You just shouldn't worry about it too much." She shrugged, trying to show it wasn't as big of a deal as he thought. "Things will blow over."

Would they, though?

"Right," he said slowly. Not in a sarcastic way, but definitely not convinced either. He brought his hand holding the pole up to scratch his neck. "See you in school, I guess."

Without any more preamble, Christopher turned back around and left. Daquiri just let him go this time.

Some distraction that had been.

* * *

 **A/N:** Ahahaha Indy you dork.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Well, this came much later than I meant it to. At least I guess it's technically still on time. But I LOVED writing this chapter, I literally stayed up till 6 in the morning on a school night writing this chapter straight through when I should have been doing homework. Or at least writing chapter 5. I was a bit too excited for this one... So you'd think I'd have gotten it up sooner. o.o In any case, I forgot to reply to a review last time:

CHBNewRomeHogwartsBerk: I'd be a bit of a jerk if Indy didn't find out _eventually_. Poor guy thinks he's been ditched. If you like mermen, though, you might have to stick around for a long while...;-) As for Gypsy's hair, Gyp says: "Thanks! I LIKE MY HAIR TOO :D" And my friend appreciates your appreciation for her humor. She wrote most of next chapter, so hopefully you'll enjoy that too. xP Glad you're enjoying it, and keep reading!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

CHAPTER 6| CHARMED

Lilting song echoed around the cave walls of the Moonpool. Daquiri closed her eyes and leaned back against the rim of the pool, her tail floating out on the water in front of her. She only ever really sang for Fox anymore; singing by herself, and simply for her own enjoyment wasn't something she'd done for a very long time. Her dad didn't really like her singing. He always said it reminded him of—

"I didn't know you sang!"

Daquiri was jolted out of her thoughts by the sound of Gypsy's voice, and she abruptly stopped singing and opened her eyes. She'd been too caught up in herself to hear the other mermaid come in. Daquiri glanced at the underwater entrance when Suzi glided through, and her head silently broke the surface. Daquiri adjusted her position in the pool to one that was a little less casual. The guard that she had allowed to slip down snapped back up like a trap.

"Yeah," was all she said, restlessly swishing her tail a bit.

"You should totally embrace the whole singing mermaid thing!" Gypsy said enthusiastically. "You'll be like Ariel!"

Making a face, Daquiri flicked a lock of her wet hair. "Pass," she said. "I think I'm already one purple seashell bra away from being too close to _The Little Mermaid._ " She wrinkled her nose. "Especially the _little_ part."

Gypsy giggled at that. "You _are_ tiny. How tall are you anyway?"

"Five-zero," Daquiri said shortly.

Gypsy frowned. "Fifty… inches?"

"Five feet and zero inches, Gyp," Suzi clarified.

"Ohhh, right." Gypsy bobbed her head. "That makes Indy…" Gypsy paused to count on her fingers. Her eyes widened. "A foot and four inches taller!"

"Yes," Daquiri said dryly. "He is a bear."

"Ha!" Gypsy threw back her head with an exuberant giggle. "Together you guys are… _Beauty and the Beast!_ "

Daquiri gave the other mermaid a look. "I think you're just on a Disney track," Daquiri said dryly, covering up the fact that the comment made her a bit uncomfortable.

"No, I think she's onto something," Suzi spoke up. The corner of her mouth quirked into a smirk. "Indy's got the whole beauty thing going on, and you're clearly the beast."

"Excuse me for leaving my sense of humor at home," Daquiri deadpanned.

"Anyways," Gypsy said, giving Suzi a sidelong look, "we thought we'd find you here. We wanted to warn you about tonight."

Daquiri raised an eyebrow. "Warn me?" she repeated, her tone a tad skeptical. "What about tonight?"

"It's the full moon," Suzi clarified.

Now both of her eyebrows were in the air. "And that's a problem because…?"

"It makes us go _crazy!_ " Gypsy made a cuckoo motion with her hand for emphasis. "And we don't even realize it!"

Daquiri gave the two a very dubious look. "Last I checked we were mermaids, not creatures of the night."

"We're not really sure why it happens," Suzi said, shifting in the water. "The moon just...has a strange effect on us. The only thing we've figured is that it has something to do with the night we transformed."

"We've started sticking together on full moon nights," Gypsy chipped in. She grinned. "We're having a sleepover at Suzi's. It'll be great!" The blonde splashed her friend playfully. "Her mom makes the weirdest food with the weirdest names but it tastes awesome."

Daquiri stared at the two. "...so we're werewolves," she deadpanned, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Pushing off the edge of the pool, Daquiri swam for the exit.

"So you'll meet us at Suzi's at six?" Gypsy asked.

"Think I'll pass."

"But you can't!" Gypsy blurted. Daquiri looked over her shoulder at the other mermaid. "It can be dangerous if you're not careful!"

Daquiri forced herself to not roll her eyes. "I think I can handle not going loony."

"But—"

"Just let her go, Gyp," Suzi cut in. She shot Daquiri a glare. "I told you she wouldn't go for it."

Daquiri ignored Suzi's hostility. "Later," she muttered, before ducking under the water and disappearing under the cliff.

* * *

Christopher took a slow sip of his coffee as he studied the maps in front of him. He marked a star by one area with a pencil before checking something on his computer screen. He shuffled around some of the other papers that were sprawled across the café table until he found the one he was looking for and compared it to the one he'd marked. He took another sip of his drink.

"What the heck are you even doing."

Christopher choked on his gulp at the sudden sound of a voice. He took a few moments to splutter out several coughs and trying to get back to regular breathing before looking up to see who had spoken.

He could feel his cheeks tinging red at seeing Daquiri standing in front of his table. Why did this seem to keep happening?

What had she said? Oh, doing, what was he—um. Right. "I, uh…" He stumbled over himself to find a simpler thing to say than what he was actually doing. "...homework," he managed to get out. "I'm doing homework."

Daquiri gave him a rather dubious look.

Christopher tried to quickly gather up the papers strewn everywhere, but Daquiri had already started studying them and beat him to picking a few up.

He awkwardly shuffled the papers he had managed to gather into a stack as she looked over his map. He wasn't sure if he should correct himself now or not, so he just stayed silent.

Daquiri lifted her eyes from the map to look at him with raised eyebrows. "I don't remember oceanography being one of our sophomore classes," she said, her voice a bit dry.

Christopher forced himself not to squirm in his seat. "It's, ah, for...diving," he stammered out.

"Ah." Daquiri looked back down. "Right. That would make sense." She seemed to pause. "Gypsy mentioned you did diving." Then Daquiri shook her head. "Ah, and I guess you already mentioned it, so I would know anyway. And the pictures," she said a bit hastily.

Christopher just nodded in confirmation before glancing down at the table, then to his computer screen, then back to the table. He took another drink.

He looked back up for a moment to see Daquiri frowning. "Are you always diving in new places, then?" she asked.

"Sometimes," he said, a bit shortly. He didn't have much to say past that.

It was apparently short enough to earn himself a look from the redhead, however. Which was one look enough to spur him into scrambling for a better answer.

"Same place means the animals get used to you, different place you see new things," he clarified.

"Uh-huh," she said slowly. "Guess you can really catch some fish by surprise that way."

He nodded, though a bit haltingly, not entirely sure what she meant by the comment.

He got about ten times more uncomfortable when Daquiri sat down across from him.

"So do you ever go diving in caves?" she asked, crossing her arms and leaning them on the tabletop.

"Uh." He paused, scratching behind his neck. "Occasionally...but it takes more prep work for that…" He trailed off.

Daquiri narrowed her eyes. "Ever been in any...interesting caves?"

"Um." Christopher crinkled his brow. "...interesting?"

Daquiri seemed to give herself a slight shake. "Nevermind," she shrugged. "I've just...always thought underwater caves would be interesting. But, ah, you know. I'm not really into swimming."

Christopher gave another slow nod of acknowledgement, though he wondered why her questions were coming off as a bit...contrived. Like she was trying to get to some other point?

Or maybe she was just trying to make normal conversation. Was _he_ the one looking too much into it?

He shifted in his seat, unsure of himself, and only feeling more awkward because of his unsurety. He tried to think of something to add to the conversation.

"So, uh, how...has your day been?" His tone peaked a little higher than he meant it to at the end of his question, making it sound more like he was questioning himself rather than her.

Daquiri gave him a bit of a strange look and he wanted to bang his head on the table. Would _that_ be socially acceptable for this conversation?

"...fine?" she answered, an eyebrow slightly raised.

"I was trying to pretend I was a devious social engineer," he amended wryly. "And was kind of wondering if you'd run into Gyp and Sue today."

Daquiri gave a light snort at his confession. "I have, actually. They wanted me to hang out with them at Suzi's house." She wrinkled her nose. "Sleepovers aren't really my thing, though."

Christopher gave a small smirk. "Not up for a girls night?" he asked. Though, to himself he wondered why Gypsy and Suzi were not only avoiding him, but also constantly trying to hang out with Daquiri. He berated himself for being so upset, it wasn't like his friends weren't allowed to socialize with other people or be off on their own. But if they wanted that why couldn't they just… Christopher shoved the thoughts aside and forced himself to ignore them in favor of the conversation right in front of him. "No makeovers or gossiping over which boy is the most dreamy?" he added, keeping up his wry commentary.

Daquiri made a face at his joking. "If anyone else even _implies_ dating around me again, I think I'm going to slap them," she grumbled.

Christopher's smirk faltered. "I, uh, I mean—not that—it, um...sorry," he stumbled out.

Daquiri eyed him with a rather unimpressed look. "Chill," she said flatly.

Christopher almost apologized again, but instead went back to re-sorting the papers in front of him. His mind was rushing to change the topic when a marked spot on one of his maps caught his eye.

"Oh, hey," he said, possibly a bit quicker than he meant to, "there's this really cool cliffside pretty near here." He pointed to the spot on the map. "Hawthorne's Cliff. It's got a really nice view."

Daquiri raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay?"

"We could, uh, go check it out." When Daquiri only looked more put off, he rushedly amended, "I just thought you might find it, uh, interesting. I mean, you said you liked caves so, uh. I mean, it's not really a cave, but it's still...nice."

Daquiri was just staring at him now. "We can go if it'll make you shut up," she said dryly.

"Sounds fair," he muttered. He gathered up his things and put them in his bag before standing up. He paused at first to let Daquiri lead, then remembered he was the one who was supposed to be showing her where it was. Right.

It was getting dark when they got outside, though not dark enough that it was hard to see. Christopher remembered it was supposed to be a full moon tonight, though, which would make the walk back easier. He and Daquiri walked in silence up until he found the spot he was looking for.

Christopher held back a bit as Daquiri walked up to the wooden railing that had been built around the edge and leaned her elbows on it, looking out at the sea.

"Wow," she said. "It is nice."

"Yeah," he agreed, walking up next to her. He watched the waves for a bit, and idly noted that the moon was starting to rise. It was a nice sight, seeing it come up over the horizon of the water.

"So, uh," he started, breaking the silence, "have you adjusted to moving and the new school and everything?"

He glanced over at Daquiri, who was still staring out at the horizon. At first he thought she was just thinking, but when she continued to not respond he furrowed his brow. "Daquiri?" he said, his tone a bit unsure.

The redhead suddenly shook herself a bit, like she was coming out of a trance. She paused, and then slowly, she turned to him.

She took a step closer to him. "Yes?" Her voice was weirdly...soft, and her sudden close proximity made Christopher uncomfortable. He shifted backwards a step.

"Uh," he stammered. "I was—was wondering if you, um…" He trailed off as Daquiri stepped closer again. Her eyes stayed fixed on him and there was a strange sort of smile playing at her lips that he'd never seen her make before. As far as he knew, Daquiri _didn't_ smile.

"Um, are you...okay?" he asked, becoming rather wary of the girl.

"Yeah," she said in the same, weird soft voice. "I'm fine." Then she made a bit of a pouting expression. "But you look tense." She reached out and ran a hand up and down his arm. "Are _you_ okay?"

Christopher flinched away at her touch. "Um," he stuttered. "I—I, um—what are you—?"

He stiffened as Daquiri tilted back her head in an airy laugh. It somehow managed to make him feel about fifty times more uncomfortable than he already was right now.

"Don't sound so nervous," she said, laughter still in her voice. "It's not a very attractive quality in humans, you know."

 _Humans?_ As opposed to _what?_

"Uh, there must be some sort of...gas leak or something," he said, trying not to stumble over his words. "We should...probably go." He started to half backup, half turn around and _get the hell out of there_.

"Don't go!" Daquiri grabbed his wrist with a...surprisingly strong grip. She tugged him over to one of the benches on either side of the railing. "I want you to stay with me."

 _Well_ I _don't_ , Christopher thought in mental rebuttal. Before he could process what was happening, however, Daquiri had managed to pull him down on the bench.

Things only got more awkward when she slid onto his lap.

"I-I really need to...go finish some homework," he stammered. He swallowed a bit thickly when she pressed a hand against his chest.

"Shh," she said, shaking her head slightly. "You don't need to go." She leaned in closer. "Just listen."

 _"Hear this siren song  
_ _To my heart belong…"_

Christopher was taken off guard when she started singing. He noted firstly that it at least sounded nice. Really nice, actually. He found himself starting to calm down. What...what had he been saying? He had to...to…

 _"Fill your thoughts with me  
_ _Forget all else you see…"_

Christopher was completely focused on Daquiri now. He'd always been aware she was very attractive, which was half the reason he always felt so awkward around her, but now she...she was...the way the moonlight was shining on her face, making it glow…it was so...

 _What are you doing?_ The passing thought jolted him a bit, and he blinked, trying to clear his head. Why was he still here? Why was—

He got distracted again as Daquiri's voice grew stronger.

 _"Your love is mine to keep…"_

Daquiri's face was dangerously close to his. All he could look at was her eyes. Very blue. Very intense. He felt a strange pull of...desire? His eyes flickered down to her lips. He...he thought he wanted to…

Christopher forgot everything he was thinking when Daquiri closed the gap between them and kissed him.

He closed his eyes as Daquiri wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. He had no idea what to do with himself, other than just take it in and let it happen. It was strange, because he was pretty sure he was actually...enjoying it...

He startled a bit when she suddenly deepened the kiss. He pulled back all at once, gasping a bit in shock and because oxygen was a thing.

"U-um," he stuttered, trying not to breathe hard, "I-I think we should...we should, um…"

He flinched in a bit of a shudder when Daquiri's hand brushed against his cheek. "Did you want to continue, Christopher?" Her voice was hardly above a whisper, and she slowly fluttered her eyes at him, the moonlight glinting in them. She leaned into him. "You know, I really like you, Christopher. You're special. Did you know you're special?"

Though his head was beginning to clear more, he still didn't quite know what the rest of his body was doing. He was struggling somewhere between feeling a pull to stay and wanting to get the hell away from there as fast as he could.

"I, um, d-don't think we should, uh—"

Suddenly, his cell's ringtone started to go off. The sudden noise of it completely pulled him back into himself, and he shook his head. "I need to, uh...phone…"

Untangling himself from Daquiri's embrace, he stood up and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He glanced back at Daquiri. "You, uh, just...stay there. Please."

He walked a ways away before answering the phone.

"Hullo?"

" _Indy! What are you doing? I'm sooo bored, and I was wondering if you could—_ "

"Yes," he interjected. "Yes. Anything. Are you at Suzi's house? Should I come over?"

There was the sound of Gypsy laughing into the phone. " _Jeez, what are you, more bored than_ I _am?_ "

"I promise you it is the exact opposite of that," Christopher said, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead. "Just, if you need anything, I will get it. And come over with it."

" _Oh-kay,_ " Gypsy drawled. " _Sounds like a plan. I just really had a hunkering for ice—_ "

" _Gypsy!_ " Christopher heard the distant voice of Suzi in the background. " _Who are you calling?!_ "

" _Um..._ " Gypsy said in his ear.

"I'll be over there in fifteen," he said quickly, not even giving his friend a chance to respond before hanging up.

"Who was that?"

"Ah!" Christopher jumped around in surprise at Daquiri's voice behind him. "Gyp, she was, that, that was Gyp, she…" He stuffed his phone in his pocket and went and picked up his bag from where he did not remember dropping it. "I have to go," he said hurriedly.

"What do you mean?" Daquiri asked. He didn't have to look at her to hear the frown in her voice. "Why would you want to leave?"

"I _really_ have to go."

"Don't." The girl somehow managed to grab onto his wrist _again_ , and he didn't understand why he was having a hard time getting away from her grip. "Stay," she pressed.

" _No_." Christopher yanked his arm away and broke out into a jog, which came off as more of a run with his long legs. He had to get out of here. He had no idea what had just happened, and his mind was still reeling from whether it had _actually_ happened.

He didn't want to think about it either way. He just wanted to get back to where things made sense.

* * *

Gypsy jumped up when the doorbell rang 20 minutes later.

"I can't _believe_ you actually told Indy to come over," Suzi grumbled. "What were you _thinking?_ "

Gypsy shrugged. "Sounded like a good time to me. He sounded pretty...eager?"

"Probably because, oh, I don't know, you guys haven't been able to hang out in forever and he would jump at _any_ chance to hang out," Suzi said, exasperated. "Why did you have to invite him over _now?_ "

"We'll talk about it later, he's waiting right now," Gypsy said, waving her friend off as she walked towards the door.

"Don't open it!"

Gypsy paused as she was reaching out for the handle. "Oh. Right." She backed up several paces so she'd be behind the door. "Come in!" she yelled.

There was a slight pause, and then the door opened. Gypsy skipped back over to Suzi sitting on the couch to make sure she didn't have a chance to catch a glimpse of the moon.

Indy walked in carrying a grocery bag, nudging the door closed behind him. "Delivery boy," he said, holding up the bag.

Gypsy waved him over airily. "Come hither, fine sir. We shall see if you deserve a tip."

"It was a bit of a rush job," he said as he walked over, "I might charge you extra." He grinned a bit as he plopped himself down on the couch between them.

"Chunky Monkey for you," Indy said, handing her a pint of Ben and Jerry's, "and Odwalla for you." He handed Suzi the fruit smoothie drink in turn. "Oh," Indy added, reaching back into the bag and pulling out a coloring book and crayons, "and this is to cure your boredom."

"Yay!" Gypsy scooped up the book and crayons and splayed herself out on the floor, opening to a random page of a tiger. She pulled out a purple crayon.

"So what have you been up to tonight, Indy?" she asked as she started coloring in the lines.

Indy paused at the question. He took a deep breath, and Gypsy gave him a curious look.

He stayed silent for a few more moments, seeming to take his time choosing his words. "Well, I was up at Jetsteam working on some diving plans, um. Found some interesting points that might make a good trip later." His voice was rather neutral, but Gypsy knew when an Indy was beating around the bush or not. She waited patiently—or at least, patient for her—as her friend seemed to mull over things to himself. He scratched his head a bit. "And, um, Daquiri sat down with me," he added, though quieter than he was previously, like he was trying to avoid that particular part.

Suzi snorted at the last bit, however. "I like how she talks to _you_."

Indy scoffed back at her. " _Talking_ might be a bit generous. It was really awkward." He shifted, clearly uncomfortable. "...yeah."

Gypsy tapped her crayon against her page. "So...was that why you practically jumped through my phone?" she asked, crinkling her eyebrows.

Indy inclined his head a bit forward, his face crinkling in a 'not quite' sort of way. He gestured his hands in a continuing motion like he was trying to come up with words, but then he just regressed to shaking his head.

Suzi raised her eyebrows at their friend. "Did something...bad happen?" She shot Gypsy a quick look that said something along the lines of "like that would be a surprise with _her_."

Gypsy ignored the exchange, though, and instead poked Indy lightly in the leg, looking up at him with a querying expression.

Indy hesitated. "I...can't say I actually know what happened," he said slowly. "Or _if_ it actually happened, but…" He shifted from where he was on the couch. "We...walked up to Hawthorne's Cliff. And, ah, it just got really...weird all of a sudden."

This time, Gypsy caught Suzi's slightly more alarmed looked. By the sound of it, she was starting to get a bad feeling about this, too.

"Weird," Gypsy repeated. "Like, we're-not-saying-anything-this-is-awkward-weird or suddenly-the-circus-happened-weird, or…?"

Pursing his lips, Indy glanced away, looking like he was trying to come up with the right explanation. His brows were practically in a permanent furrow, but after a minute or so he just shrugged a bit helplessly. "Just...weird."

Gypsy looked at Sue for help.

Suzi cocked her head to the side, her expression on the cautious side. "You didn't...happen to see the moon come up while you guys were up there, did you?"

Indy looked over at Suzi. "Yeah…" he said slowly, trailing off a bit like he wasn't sure what that had to do with anything.

"...right." Suzi shifted a bit. "So...what exactly happened?"

Now Indy was downright avoiding their gazes. He scratched his chin a bit. "...gas leak?" he offered, though it sounded like more of a suggestion.

Suzi frowned. "Gas leak? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, some gasses can make it hard to think clearly and possibly function as hallucinogens or cause memory impairment," he explained almost automatically.

Suzi rolled her eyes and Gyp nudged him a bit.

"How about you _subtract_ your encyclopedia of fun facts and actually tell us what happened," Suzi suggested a bit sarcastically, a snap in her voice.

"Look, I don't _know_ what happened," he retorted, his tone sharpening with annoyance and his venting coming out in small, frustrated hand motions like ' _enough_ already'. "Suddenly she was just—just _weird_ , and was acting all…" Indy made a searching hand motion, looking more frustrated with himself for his apparent inability to explain it than anything. "I just, suddenly I couldn't think, and we sat down, and then we kissed, and—"

"You _what?!_ "

The sound of her and Suzi's shouts were almost in unison.

Indy flinched out of his explanation, and he got quiet, his mannerisms suddenly closing up again. "I—don't know," he said quietly, his voice coming out haltingly.

Biting the inside of her lip, Gypsy laid a hand lightly on her friend's knee. Despite his outburst, she could tell he was just upset and confused. _Very_ upset and confused. In fact, she wasn't sure she'd ever seen him like this.

And technically, it was her and Suzi's fault.

Gypsy turned her gaze to her other friend, pleading with her eyes. The only answer she got, however, was a slight but firm shake of the head. It made Gypsy rather frustrated herself, but for Indy's sake she couldn't really show it.

"Um…" Gypsy rested her chin on Indy's knee. "So...where's Daquiri then?" If she was still out there...she could be in serious trouble.

Indy glanced down at her. He shrugged. "I left in a rush," he mumbled.

"We can't just...leave her out there," Gypsy said carefully, looking at Suzi.

Suzi made a slight huff, but Gypsy could see a tinge of worry in her friend's eyes. "We can't very well go find her either, Gyp," Suzi returned slowly. "It's...not like we know where she would go."

 _We might_ , Gypsy said to Suzi with a look.

Suzi looked away a bit uneasily.

They couldn't very well visit the Moonpool _now_.

"I...figured she just went home," Indy offered up.

Gypsy looked in the direction of the door. "I sure hope so."

* * *

Daquiri stirred when her alarm went off, and she grumblingly rolled over and searched for the 'snooze' button blindly. When it was off, she peeked an eye open. Ugh. Mornings.

Rolling back over onto her back, she stared up at her ceiling. She frowned. Funny—she didn't remember going to bed last night. In fact...when had she even come home last night? The last thing she remembered was...was sitting at the cafe with Christopher. They'd been talking about...she rubbed her forehead, trying to remember. Caves? And then...they had started walking to that cliff or whatever…

Daquiri couldn't remember for the life of her what had happened after that.

She flinched at the sound of her phone suddenly going off. Looking at the caller ID, she crinkled her brow at the name. She answered it with a flip of her phone.

"Why are you calling me at six in the morning, Gypsy."

"Good morning to you, too, Ri-Marie!"

Sighing and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she didn't even bother to address Gypsy's butchering of her name. She sat up. "What do you want, Gypsy," she asked, stifling a yawn.

"Well, uh, Sue and I kind of need to...talk to you."

Even though Gypsy couldn't see her, Daquiri raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Do you remember anything from last night?"

Daquiri stiffened. "...not...really."

"Yeah." Gypsy paused. "We kiiinda need to talk to you about that. So meet us at the parking lot bench before class."

Daquiri muttered an assent before hanging up.

She was fairly certain her morning was about to get much worse.

* * *

"So what was up with you last night, anyway?"

Daquiri glanced over at Arak in the driver's seat as they drove into the parking lot of the high school. "Probably a long story," she muttered.

"Probably?" Arak asked, giving her a look. "You were, like, staring off into space the entire night. And randomly walking around not talking to us."

"Mm," she grunted. "I was kind of out of it. Wasn't really feeling well."

Her brother frowned. "Are you sick?"

"If I'm not now, I'm probably _going_ to be," she said, half mumbling.

Arak gave her a bit of a strange look for that answer, but he didn't say anything further. Daquiri was glad of that.

"I'm gonna go meet some people, so I'll see you later," she said as she got out of the car.

Arak smiled as he walked over to her side. "Making friends for once are we?"

Daquiri made a face. "Something like that."

Arak laughed and gave her a quick hug goodbye, which she allowed for once. She made her way towards the bench along the parking lot sidewalk once he'd left.

She found Gypsy and Suzi already there.

"Hi," she said, a bit warily.

"And so the werewolf returns to its dormant state," Suzi said wryly.

Daquiri narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me?"

"You kiiiind of went loony last night and may or may not have traumatized Indy," Gypsy said, twisting her fingers together.

Daquiri opened her mouth only to close it again. She looked between the two girls. "What—what happened?" She had a feeling she didn't want to know.

The look Gypsy and Suzi exchanged did not make her feel any better.

"Well, Indy didn't exactly explain it very well," Suzi started slowly, "but apparently when you went up to Hawthorne's last night, and saw the moon…well, it took us a while to get it out of him, but, er..."

"You kissed Indy," Gypsy blurted out.

" _What?_ "

" _Gypsy!_ "

"What?"

Daquiri sat down hard on the bench, her head reeling. "I don't…" She closed her eyes and massaged her temples. "I don't remember any of it. How could I not remember _that?_ "

"The moon does that to you," Suzi said, her voice dry. "To all of us."

Still not knowing what to think, she leaned back against the bench. She felt like she was in a bit of a daze. "How...what am I supposed to say to him?"

Suzi snorted. "You'll probably have to convince him you're not going to hurt him first."

"I'll at least make sure he doesn't run away," Gypsy offered.

Suzi smirked. "Besides that, all we can say is 'good luck'."

Daquiri looked up at the two, all at once feeling bewildered and possibly more unsure of herself than she'd ever been before. Her stomach had managed to twist itself into a knot. How had this mermaid thing suddenly gone from strange to...to…

She didn't even know how to describe the sudden turn of events. She slid down a bit on the bench, dreading going to class today.

* * *

"Go on! Quick, before he sees you!"

Gypsy was pushing her towards Christopher, who was sitting at their usual lunch table alone at the moment, reading a book while he ate.

"Sue and I will catch up with you guys in a bit!" She pointed two fingers guns at her with a wink in a 'see you later, good luck' kind of way, then left Daquiri to sit at the table herself.

With Christopher.

Alone.

"Gypsy—" Daquiri turned to catch the girl and tell her she did _not_ want to do this, but Gypsy and her rainbow mass of hair had disappeared. She uneasily turned back around to face the table and Christopher again.

Daquiri thought she might be sick.

Slowly walking up to the table, she carefully set her lunch down, but stayed standing for the moment, feeling too awkward to actually sit down. "Hi."

Christopher looked up at her voice, and she was pretty sure she saw him turn a shade paler when he saw her. "...hi," he said hesitantly, his voice sounding unsure and wary. He glanced past her and searched back and forth real quick; Daquiri could only assume he was hoping Gypsy and Suzi were going to walk up.

She wished.

"Do you, uh...mind if I sit?"

"Yes. Er—I mean. Uh, you can sit," Christopher amended, stumbling over his words.

Daquiri gave him a small smile before tentatively sitting down.

Both of them immediately looked down at their plates.

Daquiri restlessly tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Um," she started, "about...last night…"

Glancing up at the boy, she saw his cheeks turn almost bright red, and she could feel heat rising to her own face as well. Not very hungry, she pushed her plate forward and crossed her arms on the table. "What happened...uh, well what I did—I don't exactly know how...um, I didn't—"

"How about," Christopher interrupted, "we just forget it ever happened."

 _Not exactly a problem there._ Even after the girls had told her what happened, she _still_ couldn't remember how things had gone last night. She was a bit relieved she didn't have to explain something _she_ didn't know anything more about to the boy, though.

"Right," she agreed, feeling like she was almost on the verge of stammering. "Didn't happen. Good idea." She used her fork to push around some of her food. "Oh, and, um." She glanced at him, remembering Gypsy's words. "I'm sorry."

Christopher just gave her a nod, before going back to his book.

Well. That had gone rather...differently than she'd expected. Though, she wasn't sure whether it was better or worse than she imagined. She once again found herself sliding down a bit in her chair. Christopher wasn't saying a word now and was all but ignoring her, and Daquiri felt extremely awkward being the only one sitting there. _Should_ she even be sitting there? She debated getting up and leaving.

"Hey, guys!"

Daquiri looked up at Gypsy's bright and cheery voice. She didn't return the greeting, and she noticed Christopher didn't, either, only glancing up at his friends sitting down. Though, he did seem to look relieved by their presence.

Daquiri realized that the only way Gypsy and Suzi would have found out about what had happened the previous night was through Christopher telling them about it. With her going all 'loony', as Gypsy called it, and up and _kissing_ the boy...what had he _told_ the girls about her? With the way she normally acted, and especially the way she treated most guys, she had no idea what conclusions Christopher would have come to about the way she'd acted. She barely even knew him! He must think she was absolutely crazy.

She glanced over at him again for a moment. All things considering, she wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. With the way Gypsy and Suzi had described it, maybe he would just avoid her altogether now and she wouldn't have to worry about any further complications.

Even with all the confusion, however, Daquiri couldn't get one particular thought out of her head: last night she'd had her first kiss, out on a cliffside with a scenic ocean view and everything...and she couldn't even remember it.

* * *

 **A/N:** This may forever be one of my favorite chapters. Oh, the awkward. I love it. Please leave reviews! Of anything! I love reading them. :3 Hope you enjoyed this chapter! It came later than I meant it to, because of tweaks I had to make to it...but I have a surprise that should be coming in a few days. :3


	7. Chapter Bonus

**A/N:** Yeah, this was supposed to be up forever ago. It's not even that long and was done literally forever ago, I just hadn't gotten around to editing it. Partially because busy, partially because, you know...I'm dumb. But hey, now it's here, and Chapter 7 should be coming fairly soon as well (kind of hit a wall writing the ending to that one). I said this was a "surprise" because bonus...and it's a bonus because, well. It's Indy's take on a scene that already happened! Which obviously means it's great, 'cause Indy is great. And hilariously awkward. Anyways, a friend wrote most of this chapter, so I blame her for the one swear that's a bit higher than I usually write. Hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

 **CHAPTER BONUS| CATCH OF THE DAY**

Christopher looped the rope around the metal hitch on the dock, securing his small boat. He had been out fishing for the past few hours by himself. Despite the fact Christopher had been doing more thinking than fishing, he managed to catch a few decent sized fish. He dropped the bucket on the dock, working on unloading the boat. He set his rods down on the dock, then turned to grab his tackle box.

"Hey."

Christopher jumped at the sudden voice behind him, quickly turning to see who had spoken. He jerked backwards when the speaker was closer than he expected (he hadn't heard her come up) and realized he recognized her from school. He quickly tried to rebalance himself, feeling rather embarrassed that he wasn't wearing a shirt and had gotten so startled, but his foot had moved slightly too far off the edge of the dock, throwing him further off balance instead.

His startled swear was cut off when he smacked into the bottom of his boat, and he took a moment to make sure that he wasn't about to topple the boat with the sudden weight and movement.

Christopher took a breath, now thoroughly embarrassed for a wide variety of reasons instead of simply because he wasn't wearing his shirt.

He looked up at the dock, where Daquiri was standing, looking rather unimpressed.

"...Hello," he said simply, trying for a sheepish smile. He really wished these last few moments hadn't just happened and he was back out in the middle of the ocean where he wouldn't embarrass himself in front of people he hardly knew.

A beat passed as she assessed the scene.

"You must really like fish," she said wryly, raising a brow at the fishing gear.

"I, uh," Christopher said eloquently. "It's what's around," he answered. He wasn't particularly excited about fish themselves, but it just so happened to be the most common thing one came across when diving or fishing or taking pictures underwater. He carefully reoriented himself so he was sitting up in the boat instead of awkwardly sprawled on his back.

He sat in silence, feeling exposed and generally unsure of what to do with himself while Daquiri was standing there.

"Did you catch anything?" Daquiri asked.

"A few small fish," Christopher replied, scratching his neck.

Clearly his conversation skills were up to par, because he gave enough information to answer the question, but not enough for anyone to actually continue off of it. So they went back to an awkward quiet.

" _Piece of Ship_?" she asked, raising a brow.

It took Christopher a moment to realize what she was talking about. That was the name of his boat, which she obviously found out through the arduous method of reading the painted side.

"Sometimes I think I'm funny," he explained, having named the boat while being wholly unimpressed with the worn out craft.

Daquiri smirked slightly at that, but didn't say anything, obviously awed by his articulate conversational wit.

After another long silence of the pair of them scrambling for things to say, Daquiri piped up with a drawn out, "So…"

"I'm… not much of a conversationalist," Christopher said apologetically.

"Oh really?" Daquiri said with a smirk.

Christopher gave an amused huff at the mock surprise.

"I don't particularly like talking either," she said.

Christopher nodded. He slouched forward and rubbed his chin. He used the next awkward pause to calculate where he had put his shirt and the odds of him putting it on without appearing rushed or rude.

He almost missed the next question.

"Are you in the water a lot, then?"

"Huh—yeah," he said, nodding again. "I guess so." Usually when he was fishing he stayed on top of the boat, but jumping in and swimming to cool off was an option. (Which was why he didn't have his shirt, and he was really regretting it right now.)

"I'm not much of a fan of swimming," Daquiri said.

"Uh, I didn't really like it much either," Christopher said, finding something to actually say and build a conversation. "But, uh, Gypsy really wanted to try it—diving—when we were kids and, uh, I ended up really liking it, so, um..." he trailed off as his train of thought ran out of steam. Christopher wondered if it was socially acceptable for him to bang his head on the dock post repeatedly.

"Gypsy is rather persuasive," Daquiri agreed, a bit idly. She took a pause. "Have you guys...been friends for a long time then?

"Uh, yeah," Christopher answered, trying to get his mind on something more helpful to the conversation than banging his head on a wooden post. "Since we were little. Uh, moved in down the street—er, she did. She moved here." He shifted in place and scratched his chin again. "Uh, she just kind of." He paused and made a slightly embarrassed motion as he hit a blank for the word.

"Wouldn't leave you alone?" she offered for him, sounding a bit amused.

"I was going to say 'dragged me along and said we were friends'," Christopher said, a small smile playing on his face. "I understand she hasn't grown out of that," he added, well aware of Gyp's insistence on befriending Daquiri, and complete obliviousness to the redhead's surly refusals.

"Yeah…" Daquiri agreed, reaching up a hand to play with a strand of her hair. "I can't seem to get her off my tail." She paused, wrinkling her nose for a split second. "Ah, trail," she corrected herself.

"Either one works," Christopher idly informed, since the phrase was the same either way and both were used equally often. "And I'm afraid you're stuck with her," he said wryly. "At least during the school day." After school Gyp normally was with him, Suzi or both; and it was probably easier to make excuses to be somewhere else outside of school than when everyone was stuck in the same area all day.

"Funny, since I seem to keep running into her everywhere else, too," Daquiri muttered.

"Right…" Christopher said slowly, recalling the several times recently he ran into Gypsy playing spy with Suzi. They had stopped now, but all the same… "You wouldn't happen to know what that was about, would you?" The other girls had been oddly silent on the matter, which was especially weird since normally Gyp would excitedly inform him of every detail—actually _normally_ Gyp would have consigned _him_ to play along with whatever random 'mission' she had imagined up.

Daquiri seemed to take the slightest of pauses before snorting. "I don't really know," she said dryly. "I guess she just really wanted to be friends or something." She shrugged a bit. "Pretty sure she thinks she's succeeded by now."

Christopher just frowned when Daquiri claimed she didn't know either. The girls had been acting oddly the past two months, and he couldn't figure out why.

He gave a wry smile at the last thing Daquiri said, however. "Oh, failure is never a remote possibility for her, I assure you."

"Comforting," she replied with another snort. She started to say something else, but was cut off by another voice.

"RI!"

From his skewed vantage point in the boat, he heard small footsteps pounding on the dock before he saw the energetic little boy. He was pretty young and his red hair was damp and messy; in fact he was rather thoroughly wet, probably from swimming. He looked very similar to the girl he was trying to attack with a soaking wet hug, so Christopher figured they were related.

"Fox," Daquiri said, jumping back. "Don't hug me while you're all wet."

" _I_ think you need a _big_ hug!" Fox said with a mischievous giggle. The kid broke off, though, when he noticed Christopher sitting in the boat.

"Woah!" Fox said, his eyes going wide. "You're _huge!_ "

Christopher gave him a bemused smile. "So I hear."

"Are you a wrestler?"

"No," Christopher replied with a laugh. He hadn't heard that one before. Basketball was usually the go-to.

"This is Christopher," Daquiri interjected quickly, before the kid could make any potentially embarrassing comments. "He's someone from school."

"Are you in the same class?" he asked loudly, directing the question at Christopher instead of Daquiri for whatever child logic applied.

"We have a few classes together," Christopher confirmed, unable to stop smiling.

"Which ones?" he asked.

"English and—" Christopher didn't get to say which other ones, because Fox immediately interrupted.

"You're dressed for swimming!" he noticed loudly. "You should come swimming with us!"

"I, well, actually—" Christopher scrambled for how to politely phrase that he didn't want to swim since he just got _back_ from being out on the water, but the kid continued.

"It'll be really, really, _really_ fun," Fox insisted, clearly believing it was much too fun for only one intensifier. "And you're all dressed and everything so you can totally go!"

Christopher was trying to figure out a nice way to say 'no', when heavier footsteps came up the dock.

"Fox, you can't just run off like that," a familiar voice said. Christopher tilted his chin slightly as the speaker came into view.

Christopher did, in fact, know him from somewhere. He couldn't exactly remember the context though, maybe one of his classes.

They exchanged a small wave when they noticed each other.

The guy looked a bit surprised to see him. "It's...Indy, right?"

"Ye—" Christopher didn't get to finish because Daquiri suddenly gave a frustrated huff.

"Seriously, Arak? You too?! His name is _Chri—"_ Then _she_ didn't get to finish because Fox realized what the guy had called Christopher.

"YOUR NAME IS INDY?!" he exclaimed incredulously. "Like Indiana Jones!? Do you have the hat and whip and everything? Can I see?!"

Christopher was a bit startled by the outburst but gave a bemused laugh. "Afraid I don't, but I do have the jacket."

"That's so _cool!"_ Fox exclaimed.

Christopher smiled, unsure of exactly how he suddenly became super cool, but apparently the kid now found him incredible.

Daquiri looked between Christopher and Arak. "You two know each other?"

Arak nodded. "Yeah, he's in my calc class."

 _That's_ what it was. Christopher nodded.

"Daquiri is my little sister," Arak explained. Daquiri must not have liked the 'little' part or something, because she gave her brother a glare. Ignoring her, however, Arak raised an eyebrow at Christopher. "If you're in my calc class, how come you know Ri?"

"I'm actually in her grade," Christopher replied, shifting a bit. "I just, uh, have a higher math."

"He's in her _English_ ," Fox said sagely.

"Is he, now?" The pleasant smile stayed on Arak's face, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. They looked more...questioning now. "And you two are...good friends?"

While Christopher shifted uncomfortably at the way Arak was looking at him, his question seemed to alert Daquiri of something.

"Stop it, Arak," Daquiri hissed at him.

"You know, I don't recall you ever having _guy_ friends before, Ri." There was still the amused tone to her brother's voice, but he still had that weird underlying look that he now turned to Daquiri.

Christopher was somewhere between feeling bewildered, uncomfortable, and severely embarrassed—especially since he _still_ wasn't wearing a shirt.

"We're not friends," Daquiri snapped. "In fact, Arak, this isn't even any of your business so why don't you _leave_ _now._ "

Christopher fought the urge to start up the motor to his boat again and just head back out to sea.

Fox raised his hand excitedly, bouncing up and down a few times. "I'm friends with Indy!" he said happily.

Well, that made one person at least.

"He's gonna go swimming with me!" With that, Fox suddenly and enthusiastically leapt into the boat with Christopher, practically on top of him.

" _Fox_!" Arak and Daquiri shouted at the same time.

Christopher bit back several startled swears as there was suddenly a child on top of him, and he quickly shifted his weight back and forth to keep the boat from tipping over. It splashed wildly again as it was forcibly thrown off kilter.

When he got the boat settled down, Christopher glanced at Fox, who had a broad and happy smile on his face as if it was perfectly alright to nearly capsize a boat and to jump on top of strangers.

" _Ri!"_ Arak chided suddenly, and Christopher looked up to see the redhead storming off for whatever reason.

" _Ri-i!_ " Fox shouted after her. "We were gonna go swimming!"

Christopher looked between the three siblings, entirely confused at how this had happened.

"C'mon, Fox," Arak told the little boy as he bent over and picked up the kid from out of Christopher's boat. "Sorry about that," Arak said a bit hurriedly, before picking up his pace after his sister.

Christopher watched after them.

Well. That happened.

Now he was going to go put on a shirt

* * *

Christopher was making trips between his boat and his car, packing up his equipment for the day. He was bringing up his tackle box and rods. He had already packed the fish bucket, and put his shirt on while he was up there.

Now he was heading back up to his car along the main walkway. When he was almost back, he saw two familiar people standing on the walk ahead. One of them, in fact, he had just spoken to. The other he was not a fan of.

The two in question were Daquiri and Kalen. As Christopher got closer, it sounded like Kalen was flirting with Daquiri. Which wasn't unusual. For a number of reasons. Kalen was a flirt, and a bad one at that. Well, bad in a 'frequent offender' way, that was. By the number of girls he usually had strung along, he must have been skilled at it in some way.

"Last I checked this wasn't a bikini."

"Might as well be."

He frowned a bit to himself at hearing that comment. _He_ was glad the guy was apparently interested in someone other than Gypsy, though he knew Gyp herself would be upset at the idea.

Regardless, it was apparent to Christopher that the conversation was blocking the walkway, and there wasn't enough room for him to quietly slip past. He sighed to himself as it was apparent he'd have to speak up and interrupt them to ask them to move out of the way.

"Excuse me," Christopher said quietly, slowing his step, hoping they'd move aside readily enough for him to not have to stop. Daquiri stepped back a little, but there wasn't much more room on the walkway for her to back up and give him more room. Kalen didn't move, forcing Christopher to wait. The guy looked him over.

"Fishing?"

 _No, I just really enjoy taking long walks on the beach while carrying fishing rods. It's very soothing._ Christopher just gave a small nod, waiting for Kalen to move out of the way.

He still didn't.

"You catch a lot of fish?"

 _Just move your ass, I'm not interested in a conversation._ Christopher nodded again, mentally willing Kalen to understand that he needed to move over two steps.

"Weird you can't catch a girlfriend then, huh?" Kalen said with a grin, glancing at Daquiri as if expecting commendation for his hilarious wit.

Christopher gave him a look. If only he had telekinetic powers to move the guy two feet over. Or maybe further back, dropping him somewhere less than pleasant.

"Why do you think that could be?" Kalen continued, ignoring the signs that Christopher thought he was making very clear about not wanting to be teased, to converse, or even to be kept waiting for him to move out of the way. "Maybe the smell? The—"

"Would you _shut up?_ " Daquiri snapped, catching both of the boys off guard. Kalen had a surprised and slightly offended look like he had never heard those words directed at him before. (Which wouldn't surprise Christopher, honestly.) "How do _you_ attract _anyone_ with that third rate personality of yours?"

Kalen opened his mouth to reply, but apparently didn't have a witty comeback to someone not humoring his witty comeback.

Christopher looked between the two.

"Now in case you forgot, he asked you to move _five minutes ago_."

Kalen scoffed, trying to recover himself. "Well, then why don't I just leave?"

" _Bye_ ," Daquiri said immediately.

Kalen blinked, obviously not expecting that answer. It seemed he wasn't as charming as he thought he was. The guy lingered a moment longer, unsure of what to do, then just rolled his eyes and walked off, apparently too stunned for another witty remark.

"Jerk," Daquri muttered as he walked off. (Though he was pretty sure her tone indicated she meant a stronger word.) She glared up at Christopher. "You need to stand up for yourself."

"I… uh. Sorry?" Christopher said wittily.

She crossed her arms. "You _do_ know you're a bear, right?"

Christopher glanced away for a split second as if there was a prompt for why that comment was relevant.

"You _could_ have just pushed past him," Daquiri said, spelling it out for him.

"I think that's rude," Christopher said lamely.

"Oh, and you thought _he_ was using his table manners?" she retorted.

Christopher shifted. "Shoving him seems…uh... disproportionate."

Daquiri suddenly pushed him. "Does _that_ seem disproportionate?"

Christopher's brows came together, unsure of how to respond. "Uh…yes?"

Daquiri rolled her eyes. "There's guys six inches shorter than you that do a lot more."

He didn't know how to reply to that so Christopher just stood there awkwardly.

Daquiri apparently wasn't done with him, as she crossed her arms and continued. "And what if he had said something to me? Or Gyp or Suzi? Would you say something _then_ _?_ "

Christopher frowned. "Of course I would," he said, slightly offended at the notion that he wouldn't defend someone else.

"Then why not stand up for yourself instead of being a washcloth?"

"I... i-it's not that big of a deal, he just needed to move over," Christopher said defensively.

"You wouldn't think he 'just needed to move over' if he said it to anyone else," Daquiri scolded. She let out an annoyed huff. "No wonder Suzi can ditch you so easily."

Christopher frowned and looked away. Well, he guessed that was evidence that he wasn't just being paranoid about the girls frequently ditching him lately. For once he would have been perfectly fine without evidence.

Daquiri's demeanor changed slightly. "Ah," she said, a bit hastily, "that...I didn't mean it like that."

Christopher just made a sound acknowledging he had heard her. He suddenly remembered he was still holding his fishing equipment. "I, uh, should put these up."

There was a pause.

"Was there… anything else you needed to pack up?"

"No," Christopher said simply. He had already put the fish in his car, and there wasn't much else that he had to take out of the boat.

When there wasn't anything else after another pause, Christopher started to leave.

"Hey," Daquiri started.

Christopher stopped and looked over at her.

"Gypsy and Suzi want to hang out with you. Things are just… um." Daquiri looked down, looking for the word. "Complicated." She looked back up at him. "For them."

Christopher's brows came together. "Uh-huh," he said, unsure of what that could _possibly_ mean or be implying.

"You just...shouldn't worry about it too much." She shrugged. "Things will blow over."

"Right," he said, not really believing in either of their statements. "See you at school, I guess," he said.

On that, he left. Might as well leave now before something _else_ happened. Today had been absurdly eventful.

He had just been going fishing.

* * *

 **A/N:** Ta-da. Hope you guys liked it. I'll be back hopefully soooon with moooore. :D Fanfiction isn't going to let me keep those multiple letters, is it.


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Sorry for the wait for this one, guys. It's mainly a filler chapter with some background information shoved in, so it wasn't as fun for me to write...but hopefully it's still amusing! The next chapter is soon to come however, as I wrote it in 4 days and just needs some editing done to it. ;-) Enjoy!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 7| DISTRAXION**

"Hey, Daquiri!"

Daquiri looked over her shoulder when someone called her name. When she saw who was coming towards her, she narrowed her eyes and turned back around to her locker.

"Hey!" Kalen said as he came up next to her.

"I don't want to talk to you," she said brusquely. She grabbed her lunch from the shelf, shut her locker, and turned on her heel.

"Hey, look, just give me a minute," he insisted, coming up in front of her and holding up his hands in a placating gesture.

Daquiri paused to give him a look. Then she went around him.

Much to her chagrin, Kalen kept in stride with her, his longer legs easily keeping up with her pace. "Look, I just want to apologize for the other day," he said, his voice insistent.

"Why?" she snapped. "Because Christopher isn't around to harass?"

"That's _why_ I want to apologize. I think you might've taken everything that happened the wrong way."

Daquiri snorted. "Oh what, you mean you weren't _trying_ to be a douchebag, it just happened accidentally?" She rolled her eyes. "Because that makes everything better."

"No, just listen. Indy and I have known each other a _really_ long time, and that's _always_ how we interact." Daquiri glanced at him momentarily when he turned his head to her with a bit of a sheepish smile slung on his face. "The kid's always quiet so I'm always trying to joke around and get a reaction out of him, you know?" Kalen's tone was actually rather earnest. "None of that teasing is ever genuine, I promise."

Daquiri's face stayed stony. "Christopher doesn't seem to think so."

She saw Kalen's eyebrows furrow out of the corner of her eye. "Really? Are you sure?"

Daquiri finally whipped to face him, abruptly stopping in the hall. "Yes," she said icily. "You might just think you can get away with it because he would never _do_ anything about it, but _really_."

Kalen was giving her a puzzled look. "I honestly had no idea. I would never tease him if I knew it bothered him."

Daquiri wryly looked him up and down. "I don't think that's the only part that bothers him."

"I'll straighten that out with him," Kalen assured, making a placating gesture with his hands. "I just want to make sure we're okay."

Daquiri frowned at him for a few moments, then turned and began walking again. "No more okay than we already were."

"So...we're good then?"

She gave a huff. "Look, Kalen. I'm not a huge fan of yours in _general_ , but if you want to think that's fine, then sure. Be my guest."

Taking several long strides in front of her, he turned to face her while walking backwards. "So you _do_ like me," he said with a grin.

Daquiri's gaze bore into him. "Funny, I thought I just said the exact opposite."

They were finally at the cafeteria now, and Kalen held the door open for her. She paused with a glare at him and opened the door next to it herself.

Kalen gave a short laugh at her blatant ignorance to his chivalry. "You're weird, Daquiri. Are you like this with every guy?"

"Are you this charming with every girl?" she returned, about two seconds away from twisting her voice into a childish mimic.

"Hey, most girls _like_ a guy who can be a gentleman," he bantered back, cracking a smile.

Daquiri looked around for Gypsy, Suzi and Christopher. "Is that what you call dumping your beaker of water all over me in chem lab?"

" _That_ was an accident."

"I'm sure."

"It was!"

Pausing a distance enough away from the table with Christopher and the girls that she was out of earshot, Daquiri gave the boy a look. "If I agree, will you go away?"

Kalen flashed her a toothy smile. "I'll go away if you give me your number."

"No."

He shrugged. "Guess I'll just have to join you then."

"Try to sit down and I promise you I will never acknowledge you again."

Kalen chuckled. "Okay, okay, fine. Not done warming up to me yet. I'll leave you alone." Then he winked. "Just not forever."

Giving him one last unimpressed looked, Daquiri closed the gap between her and her lunch table, leaving Kalen behind. She sat down at her chair without greeting anyone. She didn't look up until she realized it was completely silent at the table. She raised an eyebrow at all of them looking at her, save for Christopher who was more glancing at Gypsy. "What?"

"Why does it seem like you're always talking to Kalen?" Suzi asked skeptically.

" _OhmyGregorydidhementionme?!_ " Gypsy excitedly asked at the same time.

"Right on schedule," Christopher said in a quieter tone, looking down at his plate.

Daquiri gave him a weird look, and she noticed Suzi glaring at him. Ignoring him, though, Daquiri turned her attention to the girls.

"He's the one always talking to me, thank you, and why exactly did you think he would mention you, Gypsy?" Daquiri looked at each of them in turn.

"Wishful thinking," Christopher said, in the same low tone. This time Suzi full-out elbowed him in the side. Christopher looked up at her with a smirk, and Suzi flicked his fork off the table while he was distracted. He gave her a long look before bending over to pick it up.

Gypsy seemed to be oblivious to her friends' mini skirmish and was apparently trying to keep her focus on Daquiri because of her question, but the girl kept shooting distracted glances over the redhead's shoulder. "So you mean…" She glanced down at her food this time, pushing around some noodles with her fork. "He didn't?"

Frowning, Daquiri furtively looked between all three of them. It seemed pretty clear that they were all aware of something she had no clue about. Or at least...she was _pretty_ sure they were all aware of the same thing. She looked back to Gypsy. "No?"

Gypsy tossed a coral dread out of her eye. "Oh."

Daquiri glanced over at Suzi and Christopher again when the Latina cleared her throat and pinched Christopher's arm.

He gave a bit of a start, then glared at the girl. When she glared at him right back, he gave her a disgruntled look and looked like he wanted to huff. Suzi just looked down her nose at him with an unmoving stare.

Giving a glance to Suzi, Christopher switched his attention over to their friend, who was now frowning dishearteningly at a piece of broccoli she'd stabbed with her fork. "Ah, Gyp," he said, finally making his voice a normal level, "did you still want us coming over after school?"

Gypsy looked up at him, her eyes brightening a little. "Oh, yeah!" She grinned at Suzi, some sort of mischievous look in her hazel eyes. "We were gonna do that thing." Then her attention abruptly switched to Daquiri. "You're coming, right?!"

"Uh...sure?" Daquiri couldn't actually remember the last time she'd accepted an invitation somewhere. This...should be interesting, in the least. She raised an eyebrow at the rainbow-headed girl. "Should I get an address to be dropped off at or…?"

"Nah, my mom can just pick us all up. Indy always comes home with us, and Suzi's with us half the time anyway." Gypsy gave Daquiri a wide smile. "She won't mind one more!"

"Right…" Daquiri said slowly. She glanced down at her food. "I'll just let my brother know."

"Oh!" Gypsy smacked a hand against the table. "And you can meet Ax!" She leaned in towards Daquiri, her arms folded on the table. "He's _my_ brother."

The redhead frowned at the name. " _Ax?_ What is he, a gang leader?"

Christopher suddenly choked on his drink a bit. Suzi snorted. "Not too far off," the Latina muttered under her breath.

Daquiri gave the two a bit of a bemused look.

Gypsy looked at her friends with amusement. "They're both convinced he's a criminal or something," she said with a shrug. "But he's really great!"

Unsure of who to take faith in on the matter, Daquiri just pursed her lips, gave a half nod, and went back to focusing on her lunch.

Gypsy seemed to forget whatever she'd been stuck on after that, chattering on like she usually did for the rest of lunch. Between that and the various expressive faces Suzi and Christopher were making at each other, Daquiri didn't participate much in the conversation for the rest of the free period.

* * *

"This is us!" Gypsy exclaimed excitedly as her mom started to pull into their house driveway. "And Indy's just over there!" Gypsy gestured somewhere nearby, but without actually asking about it Daquiri wasn't really sure which house she was referring to. She just nodded absently.

"That's how I met him," Gypsy continued enthusiastically. "When I moved here ages ago he was just _always_ by himself. Isn't that right, Indy?" She grinned over at her friend.

Christopher gave her a wry smile. "Now it's impossible to be alone."

"Which is good for you, otherwise you'd turn into one of those sloths that has mold growing on them and everything," Gypsy said matter-of-factly.

Daquiri couldn't help thinking that Christopher _still_ seemed to spend an awful lot of time alone, at least from the time she'd known him. Not that she necessarily saw anything wrong with being alone, considering her own preference, she still just felt a bit bad about accidentally slipping up when talking to the boy at the beach. It was apparent he hadn't mentioned it to the girls, however, since neither of them had said anything to her about it.

"I'll show you around the house first," Gypsy said excitedly as they went in through the front door. "You can meet Sir Frederick Jo—AX!"

A guy with spiky black hair tilted his head back from where he was on the couch, and when he leaned back far enough to see them Daquiri saw that he looked several years older. He cracked a crooked smile. "'Sup."

"I thought you weren't coming till later," Gypsy said, bouncing over to him. Christopher headed straight over to the counter that divided the living room and kitchen and started messing with a deck of cards lying on top of it. Suzi immediately tailed him, coming up next to him and bumping her hip into the side of his leg. It was apparently hard enough to earn her a look from her friend.

Daquiri stood a bit awkwardly still in the foyer, not entirely sure what to do as Gypsy rambled to her brother about something and Christopher and Suzi held a silent duel over the deck of cards.

She looked behind her as Gypsy's mom came through the door. The woman smiled at her. "Can I get you anything to eat or drink?"

"Um." Daquiri glanced around at the others, all still occupied. "I guess." Not knowing what else to do, she followed Mrs. Venir into the kitchen.

"What was your name again, hon?" she asked as she reached into a cupboard, pulling out a glass. She lifted the glass a bit in an enquiring gesture to Daquiri, raising her eyebrows.

"Water's fine," she said in answer to the silent question. "And it's Daquiri."

"Ah, right." Mrs. Venir smiled with a warmth that almost made Daquiri feel uncomfortable at the familiarity. "Gypsy's talked about you several times."

Daquiri shifted in her seat a bit, staring at the glass of ice water that Gypsy's mom set down in front of her. Did Gypsy talk to _everyone_ about her?

"I think she mentioned you moved to the area recently?"

Daquiri looked up again at the question. "Uh, yeah."

"Just you and your parents or…?"

"My two brothers and my dad," she replied, perhaps a bit shorter than was polite, but she wasn't very accustomed to trying to have conversations with adults. She supposed she just hadn't had one to ask about her life in a very long time, but she felt strangely like she was being interrogated. Or perhaps it was just because her guard always went up when she talked about her family.

"I'll have to meet your dad some time then," Mrs. Venir said with a smile.

Daquiri tensed a bit at that, and she had to force herself to relax. "He's usually pretty busy," was all she said, trying to keep her voice vague and nondescript. While her father wasn't stupid and it wasn't like he didn't know how to act around strangers, it didn't change the fact that Daquiri didn't particularly _like_ other people meeting him.

"Oh, what does he do?" The woman set a plate of cookies down on the table and then rested her hands on the edge, a look of what appeared to be genuine interest on her face.

Daquiri eyed the sweets. "He's a cop," she said, kind of wishing that saying that would inspire some sort of...well, _good_ feeling for once. She pushed the thought away. "Ah, do these have any nuts in them?" She actually wasn't a huge fan of desserts, but she didn't want to be rude and just ignore them. Which she admittedly found a bit unusual for herself, considering she _normally_ wouldn't care about being rude.

Mrs. Venir's expression changed to one of concern, however. "Oh, are you allergic?"

Daquiri shrugged. "Just cashews."

"Oh, then you should be fine," she said with a smile.

Daquiri forced a smile of her own. "Great." She'd kind of been hoping she wouldn't have to be polite.

"Gypsy!" Daquiri looked over at the girl when her mom called her name. "Gypsy, if you're going to bring new friends over, I don't think _Axel_ should be your main focus."

Gypsy smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Ma." Then she promptly tugged on her brother's arm. "C'mon, Ax, I want you to meet Ri!"

Daquiri herself didn't particularly want to meet anyone else, and Ax looked like he was only humoring his sister, but it was only further made clear that _no one_ could deter Gypsy's enthusiasm and insistent friendliness.

" _Behave_ , you two," Mrs. Venir said, eyeing her two children.

"Who, me?" Ax asked innocently. His mother gave him even more of a look, but apparently had more pressing things to do elsewhere, because she left the room.

Ax just grinned after her, before promptly turning the wolfish expression to Daquiri. She returned it with a rather bemused one. She put down the cookie she'd been nibbling on.

"So _you're_ the new fish in the pond Gyp's been talking about," Ax drawled, leaning his hands on the back of one of the table chairs.

That comment sent both Suzi _and_ Daquiri looking towards Gypsy, though Daquiri recovered first.

"Is everything a water pun in Santa Barbara?" she asked dryly.

Ax gave her a lazy shrug. "Maybe. But being on the water twenty-four-seven is my job, so I have more of an excuse than the average person."

"He's a captain!" Gypsy chipped in helpfully.

"I think the term is 'glorified fisherman,' Gyp," Christopher commented from the counter, where he was still messing with the cards (Suzi had finally ditched him for the conversation at the table), but was apparently at least listening to the conversation.

"I prefer 'hunter of the deep' myself," Ax said with a shrug. He casually made his way over to the counter and swiped the deck of cards from Christopher. The boy frowned first at his lack of a play thing, then actually turned to give Ax a thoroughly miffed look. Ax ignored him.

"Have I ever told you guys about the time I sailed through a hurricane—" Ax paused, apparently for some sort of dramatic effect, "—blindfolded?"

"About seven times."

"I love that story!"

"Is that the one you shamelessly embellish every time?"

"No, that's the one with the sharks and the stapler," Ax told Suzi dismissively.

Daquiri was still frowning at his original statement, however. "What exactly would be the point of blindfolding yourself in a hurricane?"

Ax smirked at her. "That's simple, Red," he said, leaning towards her. Daquiri made a face at the name, and then gave him an even spinier look when he reached behind her ear and "magically" pulled out a card. He held up the card, a joker, and spun it between his fingers. "Bragging rights."

Sitting back in her chair, she rolled her eyes and tucked her hair behind her ear a bit defensively. Gypsy, however, gave a bounce in her chair, her eyes sparkling at the trick. "Do it to me, Ax!" she demanded excitedly.

Ax cracked a half smile. "I dunno, Gyp." He ran the hand holding the one card through his hair, the others in a pile on the table, only to have it disappear. He held up both of his empty hands in a shrug. "I'm all out of cards."

" _Ax_ ," his sister whined.

Going back to the smirk that was apparently his normal expression, Ax walked over and pulled out a card from not just one, but both of Gypsy's ears. Gypsy giggled delightedly like a little kid and Axel flipped the cards to show her. "Queen of Hearts and Queen of Diamonds."

"How do you _do_ that?" Gypsy asked, clearly amazed as she took the cards from Ax's hands and stared at them in apparent wonder. Daquiri rolled her eyes, and from the looks of it Suzi and Christopher weren't all that impressed either. Apparently Ax did this a lot.

"Little bit of magic," Ax replied, producing another card out of thin air.

Gypsy gave a bit of a pout. "I wish _I_ could do it."

Axel tweaked her nose a bit. "I think you've got your own kind of magic, Gyp."

From where she was out of Ax's view, Daquiri could see Suzi practically glaring at her friend. Daquiri herself had to keep from raising an eyebrow; she was a bit curious just what all of _that_ was about.

"Uh, Gypsy," Suzi cut in. "Did you want to do that thing now?"

Gypsy crinkled her brow at her friend. "What thing?"

Daquiri looked back and forth between them, her face musing over the fact that she wasn't sure if she should be wary or not right now.

Suzi widened her eyes at her. " _The_ thing?"

"Ohhhh!" Gypsy gave the table a slap. "That thing! Yeah, totally." She hopped down from her chair. "Indy!"

Christopher raised his eyebrows at her, his chin resting on a hand in a rather bored-looking position.

"Ax needs your help with something," she said cheerfully, clasping her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her toes.

Christopher glanced over at Gypsy's brother. "Pass."

Honestly, Daquiri didn't think she'd want to be alone in a room with the spiky-haired guy, either.

"C'moooon, Indy," Gypsy whined. "He needs you!"

"I do," Ax said solemnly, completely straight-faced.

Christopher looked between the two siblings. "That convinces me about fifty times more that I don't want to do that."

"Don't worry, you'll have fun," Gypsy insisted, tugging at his hand to pull him out of his chair.

Christopher slowly got up. "What will you guys be doing?"

Gypsy waved her hand. "Something not nearly as important, but it's all gonna come together to be great." Gypsy grinned over at Suzi. "Right, Sue?"

Suzi gave a wry smile. "Yes. Fantastic."

Christopher shifted his weight to his other foot. "Uh." He glanced over at Daquiri briefly, for _some_ reason—what, did he think she knew what was going on?—before looking back at the other three. "I guess."

"Great!" Gypsy pushed Ax towards Christopher then grabbed Suzi's hand. "C'mon, Ri-Marie!" she called over her shoulder at Daquiri.

Daquiri glanced over at Christopher. She gave him a bit of a shrug before following after.

* * *

How had Gyp convinced him to do this?

Better yet, _why_ did he agree to this?

Christopher followed Axel up the dock to his boat. Ax's boat was a lot bigger than his own. It was a proper fishing vessel, large enough to fit a small crew comfortably for long trips at sea. Or one person indefinitely, he supposed. Christopher was pretty sure Ax lived on the boat, for the most part.

Ax was talking about something on the way up the gangplank.

Christopher wasn't exactly paying attention. Ax spoke about a lot of things, and a lot of them were morally ambiguous.

"Alright," Ax said, stopping and turning around once Christopher got to the top of the gangplank. "So."

"What are we doing?" Christopher prompted.

Ax snatched up a mop from where it was leaning against the wall and shoved it at Christopher in one motion. "Swab the deck!"

Christopher stared at him.

He grinned. "Always wanted to say that." The grin went away. "But seriously the bucket's over there."

Christopher stared for a moment longer.

"I'm going back," he said.

"No, no, no," Ax said, grabbing his arm before he could turn around. "Come on, you don't have to mop."

Christopher let a breath out through his nose as Ax started off to the other side of the boat. "I need your help with net work," Ax explained over his shoulder.

Christopher considered it for a moment, then gave a resigned sigh. He set the mop against the railing and followed Ax to where the nets were lumped up waiting for attention.

* * *

"So, what was with all the secrecy?" Daquiri asked a while after the three of them parted ways with the two boys, to who-knew-where. It was pretty obvious to Daquiri that no one had been telling Christopher anything for a reason, but since Daquiri didn't know any more than he did, she couldn't exactly appreciate it.

Gypsy turned around to face her with a bounce and started walking backwards. "We're surprising Indy!" she said, looking like she was ready to burst with excitement.

Daquiri raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that won't give him a heart attack?"

"Maybe not a heart attack, but it'll probably send him into sensory overload," Suzi commented dryly.

Daquiri's eyebrows turned into a furrow then. "What?"

Suzi snorted. "It's probably better if you see for yourself."

Admittedly curious, Daquiri followed Gypsy and Suzi without asking anything further. She was a bit surprised to see them arriving at the beach. She hadn't realized Gypsy's house was so close to it—it was a heck of a lot closer than from where her family lived.

"This surprise wouldn't happen to have anything to do with us being mermaids, would it," Daquiri muttered as they walked through the beach parking lot up on the hill.

"Wait, is it?" Gypsy asked excitedly, turning to Suzi with wide eyes.

Suzi snorted and rolled her eyes. " _You_ need to get off the idea of telling Indy, Gyp, and _no_ , Daquiri, why the hell would it be about that."

Daquiri gave the Latina a bit of a 'Jeez, calm down' face and gesture. "I wasn't aware there were a whole lot of other options for the beach," she said, her voice a bit dry. "This is literally the first time I've ever _willingly_ gone with you guys anywhere, I don't exactly know what you guys do for fun."

Gypsy shrugged. "Rollerblading."

"Skateboarding."

"Sometimes we harass Indy."

"That's actually a daily pastime."

Daquiri snorted. "Glad to be caught up to speed."

Gypsy slowed her pace a bit to walk side by side with her. "What do _you_ like to do for fun, Ri?"

Daquiri gave the girl a sidelong glance. "I don't usually go out."

"There's a shock," Suzi deadpanned ahead of them.

Daquiri gave the back of the girl's head a look. "Most of the things I do don't involve other people," she said, her voice a bit tight.

"No wonder you're such a joy to be around," the Latina commented.

"The feeling's mutual," Daquiri muttered.

"Oh-kay," Gypsy drawled, cutting back into the conversation. "So hey," Gypsy started up again cheerfully, linking her arm around Daquiri's, "at least now you can come swimming with us!"

Daquiri removed her arm from Gypsy's. "Yeah, I guess." Then she paused. "Why are we going onto the docks?"

Gypsy bounced forward a couple of steps. "Becaaause," she sing-songed, "this is where Indy's surprise is!"

Daquiri frowned. "The only thing at the docks is—oh God."

She stared at the end of the dock, where Christopher's boat had been pulled out of the water and was lying upside down. It was still the same little dinghy she remembered from seeing it a total of once, except that it had been a little bit...embellished.

Daquiri raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware Christopher was a fluorescent rainbow kind of guy."

"He isn't," Suzi said dryly. The smug half-smile on her face gave her away, though.

"Isn't it great?!" Gypsy gushed enthusiastically. "Now it won't look so sad and dingy!"

"Just like a unicorn got sick on it," Suzi said with satisfaction.

The boat probably had at _least_ 11 different colors painted all over it in random patterns, all of them of the bright and offensively loud variation. Daquiri had to admit it was a good paint job, just a bit...excessive. In about every way, shape and form. The name on the side of the boat, _Piece of Ship_ , had been repainted over and then liberally applied with glitter. Daquiri wasn't all that certain a fairy hadn't come and gone _Extreme Home Makeover_ on it.

"I wasn't aware they made boat-proof glitter," Daquiri said dryly.

"That was a special order," Gypsy said with a grin. "C'mon, help me turn it over, I still have to finish the inside."

With a bit of a shrug, Daquiri helped the two girls flip the boat over onto its side, so it would be easier to paint. Daquiri watched as Gypsy pulled several cans of paint out of the large bag she'd brought with her—Daquiri hadn't bothered asking what was in it before—and got to work on the inside of the boat. About one half of the inside was already done, leaving the backseat, floor and motor—all of which Daquiri could only assume Gypsy planned on overhauling as well.

"So, what was all that back there with your brother calling me a fish and talking about your magic, Gypsy?" she asked, casually leaning against one of the dock posts and eyeing the girl as she pulled her dreads of assorted colors back into a thick ponytail.

"That's probably the most useful question you've asked all day," Suzi muttered under her breath. Daquiri shot the girl a look.

"You guys don't have to worry about Ax!" Gypsy insisted, shaking up one of her cans of paint. " _You_ know what he's like, Suze. He's always saying stuff like that." Gypsy shrugged. "It's just a coincidence. I haven't told him a thing, I promise." Gypsy pulled two pinched fingers across her lips like she was zipping them up, turned them at the corner, and then tossed away the hypothetical key.

"That means you can't talk now, right," Daquiri deadpanned.

Gypsy made noises from her closed mouth like she couldn't open it as she gesticulated wildly with her hands. Then she grinned.

Suzi rolled her eyes. "You only wish that would keep her from talking for long."

"One can always hope," Daquiri muttered under her breath. Looking down at her lap, she messed with her phone idly, despite the fact there wasn't actually much to do on it. With all of them here while Gypsy painted, she wasn't really sure what there was to do.

"So, is this going to be a regular thing now?"

Daquiri looked up at Suzi's question. She crinkled her brow at the girl in a questioning look.

Suzi nodded her head at her. "You hanging out with us."

"Oh." Daquiri looked back down. "I guess." _I don't know about_ regular _, though._

Suzi gave a light snort. "What changed your mind about us? Decided we weren't the plague anymore?"

Daquiri gave her a look. "You weren't much more welcoming than I was willing."

"Oh, please," Suzi scoffed. "That was me being nice."

"No, you were pretty mean," Gypsy chipped in.

"What, and she wasn't?" Suzi said indignantly, gesturing to Daquiri.

"Normally I don't consider growing a tail a reason to become instant friends with two random strangers," Daquiri said dryly.

"I wouldn't call it _growing_ exactly," Gypsy interjected.

Daquiri gave the girl a sidelong look. "Either way," she said, her voice flat. She shifted against the dock post. "It's kind of just gotten to the point where...I guess having other people that can actually help is...useful."

Suzi grinned. "It's because you kissed Indy, isn't it."

Daquiri glared at her. "It's because I'm not a fan of doing things I don't have any control over," she said, her voice getting closer to a growl.

The Latina's face was smug. "Things like kissing Indy."

Daquiri gave a huff. "Considering kissing _anyone_ is the complete _opposite_ of something I would normally do, it comes off as suspicious. And I thought _you_ wanted to keep this Secret a _secret_." Daquiri made a face. "I'm just glad he wanted to forget about it. I don't think I could finally agree to be around you guys if I had to put up with _him_ barking up the wrong tree." She paused, then rolled her eyes. "Or down," she muttered, more to herself.

Gypsy giggled. "How did he react when you kissed him? Was it hilarious?"

Daquiri frowned. "I don't _remember_ , remember?" She gave a small shudder. "I really don't want to know anyway."

Suzi snorted. "Knowing Indy, he probably fell over."

"Comforting," Daquiri said dryly. She turned her head. "I'd rather stop talking about it."

Suzi raised an eyebrow at her. "Would you rather talk about kissing Kalen?"

Gypsy's head snapped up. "You _kissed_ him?!"

"No!" Daquiri glared at Suzi. "What the hell, Vargas. For the last time, I do _not_ like Kalen."

Gypsy gave a sigh of apparent relief. "Thank Gregory."

"Still don't understand that expression," Daquiri muttered under her breath. Then she gave Gypsy a look. "Why do you care so much anyway?"

Suzi snorted while Gypsy nervously twisted an aquamarine dreadlock around her index finger. "Well," she said slowly.

Daquiri raised an eyebrow at her. "You've got to be kidding me. Seriously? _Kalen?_ "

Biting her lip, Gypsy nodded.

Daquiri wrinkled her nose. " _Why?_ "

"He's great!" Gypsy said defensively. "He's funny and nice and smart and everyone likes him and we've known each other for a _reeeally_ long time andhe'sreallycute."

Daquiri stared at the girl. "Are you sure we're talking about the same Kalen? Kalen _Ross? Nice?_ "

"You don't even know him!" Gypsy shot back.

"I know he's an annoying jerk."

" _Is not!_ "

She crossed her arms at Gypsy. "If you like him so much you should probably know that he keeps hit—"

" _Daquiri_ ," Suzi interrupted quickly. The Latina gave her a look in a 'Don't say that' and ' _Watch it_ ' sort of way.

Daquiri frowned at her. She opened her mouth to ask what her problems was, but Suzi gave her a harder look and inclined her head slightly towards Gypsy, who had rather poutily gone back to painting.

She let out a short breath through her nose. "Whatever," Daquiri muttered.

She'd supposedly just agreed to have some sort of tentative friendship with the two girls, but so far, Daquiri was only seeing the reasons why trying to make friends was never a good idea for her.

* * *

Christopher set aside the patch of net he was working on and looked over his shoulder at Ax, who was sitting on a box, doing something on his tablet.

"I thought _we_ were doing net work."

Ax hardly looked up from whatever he was doing on his tablet. "Yeah, good job, us."

Christopher gave him an annoyed frown. Of course, Ax couldn't see that, since he wasn't really looking at him. "Why did you want me here again?"

"Needed help with some maintenance," Ax said with a shrug, still not looking up.

"By 'help' you mean make me do everything," Christopher said.

"That's what we in the business call _'management'_."

Christopher made a grunt in the back of his throat. "Really."

"Yup. You're the hired help minus the paycheck."

"Great," Christopher grumbled. He fussed with the netting for a moment then tossed it aside with brewing annoyance.

After a minute, Ax spoke up again. "Yo," he said, "have you seen this?" He turned his tablet around to show Christopher what was on the screen.

Of course, neither of them got up to move closer, so they spent a moment at an awkward distance apart where the screen was too far to make out what it was. Christopher glanced up at Axel.

"Really," Ax said, giving Christopher a look for not moving.

Christopher returned the look, but lost the battle of wills. He let out a huff and got up and walked over to take the tablet. It was an article about a ship wreckage, located a bit out to the north. He hadn't really been out in that direction, but the article seemed interesting.

After examining the scene a bit longer, he handed back the tablet. "No," he answered plainly.

Ax returned to his browsing. "Looks like it'd make some neat pictures. Up by Brewer's Point."

Christopher just made a sound of acknowledgement. He stayed standing there, not really wanting to get back to doing Axel's chores for him, but not really knowing what to do with himself standing there. He looked out over the portside at the ocean.

"So I hear you've gotten real smooth with the ladies," Ax said idly.

Christopher's brows came together and he glanced back over at Ax.

"Typically, you're supposed to have them falling for _you_ ," he continued, glancing up at Christopher wryly.

Christopher took a breath and looked back out over the water, stiffening with embarrassment. He could hear Ax's amusement at his reaction.

"Didn't you kiss her too?"

Christopher rubbed his face, trying to formulate a proper explanation for something he had no clue how to explain.

"Look at you, Casanova," Ax said with a laugh.

"Why are we talking about this?"

Ax kept laughing. "So what's the deal with this girl, anyway? Gyp almost talks about her more than she does Kalen."

"I wish I knew," Christopher grumbled.

"You kissed her and you don't know her deal?" Ax asked with a laugh.

"I don't know the deal with _that_ either," he retorted.

Ax sounded amused by the whole thing.

Christopher looked back at him. Ax wasn't really looking at the tablet anymore, having found something else to entertain himself.

Ax grinned. "She's kinda hot, though."

Christopher was silent.

Ax, unfortunately, was not. "Maybe Gyp's so interested because she thinks _you're_ interested."

"Timeline's a bit backwards for that," Christopher corrected immediately.

"Minor details," Ax said with a shrug and a sustaining grin.

"Necessary details," Christopher corrected again.

"Well, then it's amplified by the fact you'd make such a good couple," Ax teased, his grin growing.

Christopher gave him a pained look.

Ax laughed.

"Was there something we're actually supposed to be doing here?" Christopher asked, not wanting to talk anymore about Daquiri or anyone setting him up with a girl he hardly knew.

"Yeah," Ax said, pushing himself up from where he was sitting. "If you're done with the net, that is," he added mischievously.

"I'm done doing your chores," Christopher insisted.

Ax's smile didn't waver at Christopher's defiant declaration. "Come on, let's take a look at the maps."

They discussed fish as they walked to the bridge, comparing notes on what fish they had seen around. Axel was usually out a lot deeper than Christopher ventured, mostly because of the nature of their respective boats. He was very wary of taking his little dinghy more than a few miles out to sea. It was too small to stand up to much more than a gentle breeze. Anything more than that and the waves would be actively threatening to capsize the tiny, worn out ship.

Ax tossed the tablet down on the counter and quickly looked over the map.

"It'd be right here," he pointed out.

Christopher looked over the position, mentally cross referencing it with what he knew about the region.

"There's a lot of rocks out this way, but with how small your boat is it shouldn't be a problem," Ax explained. He pointed out the shallower and deeper sections of that area for Christopher, so then he wouldn't run the risk of running aground getting out there.

"So what do you want from this one?" Christopher asked when he was done, figuring the roguish man would want _something_ if he was so determined to bring it up.

"Well I always enjoy metals of valuable types," he replied with a lopsided grin. "It looks like it was a pretty big wreckage, so there might be something worth selling in that."

"Well what if I want to sell it myself?" Christopher asked wryly.

Ax scoffed. "You'd give up the moment it involved contacting someone."

"Touché."

Ax waited as Christopher jotted notes down on a spare sheet of paper. Ax's phone beeped and he checked it as Christopher made the last few notes.

"You got it?" Ax asked, putting his phone away again.

Christopher nodded.

"Cool, 'cause they're ready," he turned and started heading back out. "We can go back now."

Christopher hesitated. "Ready?"

"Yep, it'll be great."

As they left Christopher had a rather foreboding feeling.

* * *

Christopher blinked at the sudden camera in his face. Even Ax being obnoxiously up in his personal bubble did not wipe the expression off his face, however.

He wasn't entirely sure how to respond. His boat...it was...it was…

"Do you like it?" Gypsy bounced up next to him, admiring her own handiwork from where he was standing before looking to him.

He glanced down at her expectant face. "It's, um, very…" He searched for the right word. "Colorful." That was a bit of an understatement. He thought it somehow managed to look _more_ colorful than a rainbow.

Gypsy gave him an excitable hug. "I knew you'd like it! It just looked so depressing before, I thought it could use some cheering up!"

Christopher tentatively put his arm around his friend as a way of returning the embrace. "It's great, Gyp. Um, thank you." He glanced at the other two girls on the dock. Christopher couldn't really read Daquiri's expression, but Suzi looked like she was two steps away from cracking up. He raised an eyebrow at her. Then another flash went off in his face and he shot a glare over at Ax.

Gypsy straightened up again. "Do you wanna try it out now?"

"Ah." Christopher paused. "I don't have any of my fishing gear."

"Well, you don't need to go fishing!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the edge of the dock. "C'mon, we can go—"

"Gypsy," Suzi interrupted, "now's probably not the time to go out on the water." She slowly raised an eyebrow at their friend. "Don't you have homework you need to do?"

"You sound like my mom," Gypsy whined. Glancing at him and then at the water, though, she seemed to reluctantly change her mind. "I guess you can always go later."

"Yeah," Christopher agreed. "Whenever I go fishing or...diving next." Christopher gave Ax a bit of a long glance at his mention of diving. Gypsy's brother just grinned back at him and snapped another picture.

Ax looked down at his camera. "These are going to go great in the scrapbook." He took a few shots of Christopher's newly-painted boat from different angles.

"I'm going to burn that thing one day," Christopher told him.

Ax winked at him "You gotta find it first." Then straightening back up, he checked his phone. "Gyp, I gotta head out now. Wanna ride back?"

Gypsy wrinkled her nose. "Not really."

Suzi, however, pushed her towards the base of the dock. "Go home, Gyp. I don't want you failing Algebra Two."

"I'm not gonna _fail_ if I miss an assignment."

"And that's what you'll keep saying until you've missed enough work that you _will_ fail."

Gypsy gave her a pouty look, but Sue, as usual, wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. "If you finish soon enough, you'll still have time to ping Indy and go get victory pizza," she insisted.

Despite the reluctant huff Gyp gave, the bribe seemed to work. " _Fine_." She pointed at Indy. "But it'd better have pineapple _and_ guacamole on it."

Christopher gave her a bit of a smile. "Sure, Gyp."

"I'll text you!" she called loudly as she followed Ax back to the parking lot. Christopher lifted his hand in goodbye.

He glanced at Suzi.

"Why."

Suzi stayed silent a few moments longer, her head tilted as she watched Gyp get farther away. Once there was a decent distance between them, she burst out laughing.

Christopher silently took it for several long moments. He glanced at Daquiri, who had been simply standing there without a word this entire time. She looked between Suzi and him, giving him a look somewhere between bemused and a bit nonplussed. He took a breath.

"Okay, Sue, I'm going to push you off the dock in the next second if you don't stop."

"It would totally be worth it," Suzi laughed.

Daquiri gave her a bit of a look at that, but aside from that, still didn't seem to know what to make of the situation. She raised an eyebrow at Christopher. "Is there a reason you didn't tell Gypsy to maybe repaint it just...one color?" she asked.

Christopher took a slow breath. "She meant well." He glanced at his boat and did his best not to wince. "It needed a new paint job, and it was a nice gesture."

Suzi grinned. "But you hate it."

"It looks like a rave exploded."

Daquiri looked at his boat warily. "Do I need to worry about our car being embellished if I'm friends with Gypsy?"

Suzi stopped laughing to join Christopher in saying "Yes" on the same beat.

Daquiri blinked. "I think I need to rethink this friendship."

"Look on the bright side, Ri," Suzi said, giving the redhead a nudge. Ri looked down where Suzi touched her arm, giving a bit of a frown. "It'll mean we've got one more person to harass Indy every day."

"You can nix the nickname," Daquiri grumbled.

Suzi raised her eyebrows. "I supposed you think Ri-Marie is better?" At the face Daquiri made, Suzi smirked. "Besides, your full name is too long as is."

"It's as many syllables as your name," Christopher pointed out.

"Which is why none of you use it," Suzi snapped.

Daquiri raised her eyebrows. "What's your full name?"

Suzi got an irritated look in her eyes. "Indy, don't—"

"Suzanna." Christopher smiled in return to Sue's glower. "Justice."

"More like ruthless vengeance," Suzi grumbled.

Christopher smirked at her. "Come on now, Sue," he said, talking the way a teacher would to a small child, "just because you don't like it doesn't mean it isn't fair."

Suzi gave him a rather rude gesture in response to that.

Laughing a bit as he turned, he started to head back up the dock. Then suddenly he was slipping.

And suddenly he was falling into the water.

He spluttered as he resurfaced, turning to Suzi with an indignant look.

Suzi put up her hands in a pacifying gesture. "Hey, I'm all the way over here. You're clearly just clumsy." Despite the fact that she definitely had not been near enough to push him, she gave him a simpering smile.

"Enjoy your boat," she said airily as she walked past him back down the dock. Christopher gave her a glare as he pulled himself out to sit on the edge of the dock, now dripping wet. He glanced over at Ri.

Upon meeting his gaze, she took a step back from him. "I had nothing to do with this," she muttered. "All of you are crazy." She sent a glare in Suzi's direction for whatever reason applied before following after the Latina.

Shaking his head, Christopher couldn't keep the smile off his face as he ran his hands through his wet hair. He glanced over at his boat.

Well, it was the thought that counted.

* * *

 **A/N:** Like I said, a bit of a fluff chapter. BUT IT DOES HAVE ACTUAL BUILD-UP PLOT PURPOSES. It's just for plot that won't be happening for...forever. ^^' Also for the record, Indy's expressions are hilarious. Please review and comment, I love hearing from you guys, and hope you have a nice...however long it is until my next upload! (I'm super consistent, I know.)


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N:** So...it's been a while. Sorry about that. It really should have been, either, 'cause I actually finished writing this chapter in four days after that last chapter...but this got pushed back because A) I wanted to finish Part II of this chapter before uploading it and B) I didn't edit it right away. Both of which backfired because I got stuck in Part II and then school happened. The last few months were crazy. So I apologize for the huge gap. But hey, here's some backstory, guys! Also, here's where Indy ups my swear count by double. I've been trying to keep the swearing to 'hell,' but Indy kind of ruined that here because people insulted his derp. So I guess caution to that if you care about that sort of thing. Otherwise, enjoy!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 8| UNLIKELY FRIENDS PT. I**

"I know I've seen your curls before, but it's weird seeing you with them when it looks like a tornado ran through them." Daquiri stared down at the picture. "Did you even own a hairbrush?"

"I _did_ , my hair was just so _long_ and it took a million _years_ to brush it." Gypsy wrinkled her nose. "I'm pretty sure the only reason Rapunzel ever brushed hers was because her life was boring."

"Well, she was locked in a tower, so," Suzi pointed out, her voice dry. She leaned in more to study a different picture of herself and Gypsy when they were both maybe a couple years younger.

Daquiri frowned. "Why didn't you just cut it?"

Gypsy made another face. "Then I'd have to _keep_ cutting it."

Daquiri raised an eyebrow. "And that's...bad?"

"Do you know how long I have to sit still for someone to cut my hair?" Gypsy demanded.

Daquiri put her hands up as a sign of surrender. "My bad," she muttered.

"You know, Gyp," Suzi remarked, "I think Indy was better at doing your hair than you were."

"What was I better at?"

All three of the girls looked over to see Christopher had come through the door.

Daquiri raised an eyebrow at him. "Apparently you were a hairdresser?"

"Oh." Christopher stopped in his tracks for a moment. "...no."

Suzi smirked. "You can totally do Ri's some time. She can be your new _muse_."

"I wasn't aware I had an old one," Christopher muttered.

"Oh, please," Suzi scoffed, "you could do _magic_ with Gyp's hair."

"I'd say that's a bit dramatic."

"Don't worry, Ri," Suzi said, swaying into her with a nudge. "Indy's totally got you covered for prom."

"Considering prom is on my 'don't do' bucket list, I think he's off the hook," Daquiri said dryly. In a gesture she swore was unconscious, she gathered her hair up and pulled it to the side that...just so happened to be furthest away from Christopher. Moving on from the subject, she looked back down to the book in her lap.

"What are you looking at?" Christopher asked, tilting his head to try and see what Daquiri had. Then he leaned further in at the sight of it. "Wait, is that the scrapbook?" It was apparent he didn't actually need a response. He paused, then slowly reached down for it. "I'm going to need that real quick…"

"No!" Gypsy said immediately, snatching up the scrapbook from Daquiri and holding it to her chest possessively. "You'll burn it!"

"I'll only burn _most_ of it," Christopher said defensively, trying to grab the book from her.

Gypsy held it protectively away from him. "No! It's memories!"

"It's mostly just Ax making fun of me!" he retorted, making an irritated gesture with his hand for emphasis.

"Exactly," Suzi said from where she was sitting on the other side of Daquiri. "These are the memories that we want to cherish."

Christopher glared at her.

Daquiri glanced between Gypsy, Christopher and the book. "What exactly is so incriminating about what's in it?" she asked. Though to be honest, based off the past week or so, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know.

A very smug smile grew on Suzi's face. "Let's just say Indy was less vertical and a whole lot more horizontal."

Christopher frowned. "It wasn't that much more horizontal, I was just shorter…"

"You looked like a cinnamon roll."

"Can I have the book so I can smack her with it?"

While they'd been bickering over it, however, Daquiri had relinquished the scrapbook from Gypsy and gone back to flipping through the thing. She'd stopped on a page. "He wasn't that bad," she commented.

"Why are you letting her look at this?" Christopher demanded, taking another swipe for it. Both Gypsy _and_ Suzi hunched over the book protectively—which was rather uncomfortable, considering it was still sitting on Daquiri's lap. She leaned back from both of them.

She looked over at Christopher. "If it makes you feel any better, there aren't any with you shirtless." She snorted a bit. "I think you even went _swimming_ with a shirt on."

Christopher frowned a bit. "Where is that?"

Daquiri shrugged, looking down at her lap, which was still being covered by Gypsy, though Suzi had apparently decided it was safe enough to sit back up. "I dunno, some place with a bunch of surfing, it looked like."

"Wait, can I see?" Christopher said, sitting down beside Suzi and reaching for the scrapbook.

"Nooo," Gypsy said, grabbing it and keeping it out of his reach. Daquiri tried to keep the irritated look off her face at having Christopher's arm right in front of her nose.

"I just wanna see," Christopher complained, his voice taking on a slight whine. Daquiri gave him a bit of an odd sidelong look. She hadn't been aware he could make that sound.

Gypsy looked at him suspiciously.

Suzi huffed and took the scrapbook to keep on her lap, so Christopher could see the picture in question without it being in danger of being apparently stolen by him. She flipped to the right pages for Christopher.

"Oh that," he said, looking it over. "That was that thing at Huntington Beach. 'Surf City'. It was fun."

Suzi gave him a look. "You refused to touch a board."

"I still had fun…" Christopher said defensively.

"Then we went to San Diego!" Gypsy interjected. "There was a carnival with balloon animals!"

"I think there're pictures of that too," Christopher said, peeling up the corner of the pages to look through them without turning the page they were on.

Suzi smacked his hand. "Stop that."

"I'm just looking!" Christopher protested.

"Just wait—we'll get to it."

"I wanted to see where the San Diego pictures were."

"Just _wait_."

"Anyone would think you two hated each other, not spent all your time together," Daquiri muttered.

Suzi shrugged. "We do most days."

Daquiri raised an eyebrow. "I think that begs the question of why you're even friends then."

"We're all rogue misfits, spurned from other groups."

Suzi whacked Christopher upside the head. "Speak for yourself, Pillsbury Dough Boy. _I_ actually had friends."

"I had friends," Christopher said defensively.

"Friend. Singular."

"It was me!" Gypsy raised her hand helpfully.

"Thank you, Gyp," Christopher said at a deadpan.

Suzi smiled smugly at being proven right. "I dug both of you two out of the gutter and you still haven't thanked me for it."

"Was never planning on it."

"He _kinda_ has a point," Gypsy pointed out.

Daquiri frowned. "Should I be wondering about the context for this?"

"It's actually a really good story!" Gypsy said enthusiastically.

Suzi frowned. "Actually it's not. Let's not tell it."

"I vote skipping, too," Christopher said, perhaps a bit too quickly.

Now Daquiri was actually vaguely interested. She glanced between all of them, a musing look on her face. "Have you three always been a democracy," she said dryly.

"No, I'm definitely the benevolent leader," Gypsy said sagely, sticking her nose in the air. Then she broke her own demeanor. "And I say it's story time!"

There were various disgruntled noises from Christopher and Suzi, but apparently neither of them was going to take the objection any further.

Perhaps Gypsy was the benevolent dictator.

"Okay!" the girl announced, flipping way back in the pages of the scrapbook. She let it fall on a page filled with pictures of just her and Christopher. She displayed it for them like it was a story book, then grinned. "Once upon a time…"

* * *

"Indy! Help me get the quarters out!"

Her friend looked up from his book. He glanced down, where she was trying to reach down into the water to grab a handful of the shiny coins. Unfortunately, her arms were a bit too short to reach them without actually falling in.

"Gyp, I don't think you're supposed to do that," he said.

"But they're all just going to _waste_ ," she whined. "I mean, what happens once the wishes come true? They just sit there!"

"I'm pretty sure the mall just takes them."

Gypsy gasped, only being partially dramatic. "That's horrible! They're _wishing_ coins!"

Christopher raised an eyebrow at her. "Weren't _you_ just going to take them?"

She turned up her nose at him. "That's different, I'm a _patron_."

"A patron stealing people's wishing coins."

She made a face at him. "Are you going to stop reading? Let's go do something!"

"Reading is something," he countered, still looking down at his book.

"It's not something we can _both_ do," she whined, tugging at his arm.

Christopher looked down at her wet hands on his arm. "Technically you could read, too."

Gypsy let out a sigh through her nose. "What are you reading?" she asked, leaning her head onto his shoulder to try to look at the words.

"Redwall," he answered absently, turning a page.

"Which ooone, there's like a million of those."

"The Taggerung."

Gypsy stared at the page for a minute. Then she got bored. "Chrisssss, let's go to the pet store or something." She hung on his shoulder, practically on top of him. "We can go look at the puppies!"

Christopher gave her an amused look. "We did that the other day."

"You can never see puppies too many times," she insisted.

Christopher tilted his head for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Sure."

"Yay!" She bounced up from the edge of the fountain and waited for her friend to mark his place in his book, meanwhile looking around for the sign that pointed to the pet store. What she spotted instead only made her more anxious to leave.

"Indy," she said, her voice coming out the side of her mouth, "it's _them_."

Christopher looked up to see what she was referring to. He frowned a bit when he saw the small group of kids from their school. "Just ignore them, Gyp," he said, standing up and folding his book under his arm. "C'mon, let's go."

Glancing nervously over at the kids, Gypsy turned to follow after Indy in the opposite direction. She winced when she heard one of them call out her name. She was going to just keep going, maybe pretend she hadn't heard them, but they'd gotten closer and called out her name again, as well as Christopher's.

Pausing, she swiveled around to face the other kids, two guys and three girls. They were all in her homeroom class, and not some of her most favorite people. She gave them a small smile and raised her hand in a wave. "Hi, guys." She tugged on her hair behind her back.

"Hey," one of the girls said—Savannah, known for her big hair and much bigger attitude. She smiled at Gypsy. "What are you two up to?"

"Oh, um." Another hair tug. "...nothing, really." She gave a skittish smile. "You know, just, uh, hanging out and stuff." Christopher stood next to her silently, simply looking between their classmates. Gypsy glanced at him.

"That's just like you two, always hanging out," Savannah said with a simper. She slipped her hand into one of the other boys'—a guy named Jaelon, who played center for their middle school basketball team. "Are you guys _together_ now?"

Gypsy furrowed her brows. "Um, well, we're both...here?"

"She means 'dating,' Gyp," Indy murmured to her in a low voice.

"Oh," Gypsy squeaked. "Nowe'rejustfriends."

Savannah laughed at that, and her two girl friends giggled next to her. Savannah raised a thin eyebrow. "Did your mom not teach you the difference between _friends_ and _boyfriends_ , Gypsy?" Then the girl put a hand to her mouth in an 'oops' way. "Sorry—I forgot you don't have a mom."

"I _do_ have a mom," Gypsy said defensively. " _And_ a dad."

"Not a _real_ mom, sweetie." Savannah gave her a pitying look. "Your real one didn't want you, right?"

"I'd be more concerned about yours—she clearly didn't care enough to tell you that you'd have a _chance_ of seeming smart if you shut the hell up and stopped being a bitch," Christopher snapped sharply. Gypsy scooted closer to him without thinking, biting her lip.

"The Whale _speaks!_ " the other guy, Ty, chortled. Gypsy knew Indy hated him probably the most. He was the one that constantly made cracks about Christopher's weight, and he seemed to love the sound of his own voice just as much as other people liked laughing at his "jokes".

Indy's jaw tightened at Ty's taunt, but he didn't say anything to it. "Let's go, Gyp," he muttered to her, slightly lifting his hand to her side to usher her in the opposite direction.

Giving one last glance at Savannah and her friends, Gypsy started to follow after Indy.

"Jae, the Whale can't breathe!" Ty called after them. "Quick, get him in some water!"

Gypsy was suddenly shoved out of the way, and one of the girls grabbed her wrist, laughing, as Jaelon and Ty dragged Christopher over to the fountain.

"Indy!" she wailed, pulling at her hand. She winced a bit when the girl dug her long nails into her wrist, but she ignored it. "Guys, stop it!"

Indy looked like he wanted to punch both of the other boys, but despite his bulk, the other two were both at least a head taller than him and Indy couldn't get away from both of them at once. There was a splash as he was toppled over the side and into the pool.

Gypsy pulled away from the girl, who was now laughing uproariously with her friends, and ran over to the fountain. She scrambled over the edge and jumped knee-deep into the pool after Christopher, not caring that it got her new fuzzy purple leg-warmers wet. She sloshed over to help him up.

Christopher was sending a murderous glare over at the group of retreating kids as Gypsy helped pull him to his feet. "I am going to kill them," he mumbled, wiping water out of his face.

He looked up when one of them yelled back, "Have fun reading underwater, Moby Dick!"

Frowning, Christopher glanced down at his book in the water, where one of the boys had stolen it and thrown it in after him. Bending over, he picked it up, shaking the water out of the pages even though it was rather hopelessly ruined.

"Are you okay?" Gypsy asked him, hopping up onto the ledge of the fountain. She sniffled a bit, and quickly rubbed an arm over her nose.

"Just waterlogged," he muttered, wringing some of the water out of his shirt. Then he looked over at her. "Hey," he said, his voice gentler, "it's okay. I'm fine." He waded over to her. "Are you okay?"

Sniffling again, Gypsy pushed her masses of curls out of her face as her head drooped. She swung her legs a bit, fiddling with one of her cuticles. "Do you—um, do you think that...that that's why I was put in foster care? Because my mom didn't want me?" She wiped a hand over one of her eyes as she looked into the rippling pool.

"What? _No!_ Of course not!" he said firmly, his voice sharp. "What the hell would they know? They were just talking out of their asses trying to make themselves feel better about themselves in some demented way. Don't pay attention to a word they say." Taking her up in his arms, he stepped out of the pool and over the ledge, back onto the floor. He gently set her down. "Come on, we're going to go look at the goddamned dogs and it'll be great."

Trying to swallow back the rest of her tears, Gypsy hiccupped. She hugged Indy. "I'm sorry they threw you in the fountain."

Christopher hugged her back a bit with one arm. "Me too. But maybe you should hug me when I'm not wet."

She looked up at him from her hug. "Can we go get smoothies before the puppies?"

"Can't have puppies without smoothies."

She smiled at that. "To the tango-berry cherry!"

* * *

It was a Saturday, which meant one of Gypsy's favorite things—rollerblading! Sometimes Indy would come with her, but when he did he normally just stuck to the sidelines, reading or working on a Sudoku or some other puzzle. Today, however, he'd had to do something for his mom, so Gypsy was at the skate rink by herself. Or she came there by herself, at least. There were several friends she usually saw there that she would often blade with.

As she sat on one of the benches and laced up her skates, however, she looked around and couldn't spot any of her friends. The park was decently full of other kids, especially around the half-pipe. That was Gypsy's favorite place to skate. Skating alone wasn't so bad, though. She still had fun, working on tricks and combinations.

Standing up, she bladed over to one of the equipment bins and grabbed a stack of orange cones that she could set up to work on her in-lining. Free-styling was probably her favorite activity, but she thought some of her technique for it could use some more work. She wanted to see if she could up her consecutive spin count…

She'd been working at it for maybe twenty minutes when she realized someone was watching her. Gypsy tried not to look, but she was pretty sure she knew the girl. Or recognized her, anyway. She thought her name was Suzi, and she usually hung out with the other popular kids that were athletes. Which was what worried Gypsy a bit. She didn't know much about her, but she did know a lot of girls made friends with her because her parents had a lot of money. If there was one thing Gypsy knew about popular girls and money, it was that usually the more they had, the meaner they were.

Gypsy avoided looking at Suzi, hoping she wouldn't bother her. She didn't want to have to leave the skate park now—she'd just barely gotten there. Giving a _reeeally_ quick glance over, though, Gypsy saw the girl was now walking over, a skateboard under her arm. Her chest fluttered nervously.

Maybe coming alone hadn't been such a great idea after all. She wished Indy were here, so she could escape to go sit next to him. With the girl coming towards her, Gypsy wasn't sure whether to just keep skating and pretend she didn't notice her or make a beeline for the sidelines. She tried to concentrate on skating boxes.

"Hey."

Gypsy abruptly put her brake down, coming to a short halt. She glanced around—just to make sure the girl _was_ in fact talking to her—before giving her a shy, unsure smile. "Um, hi." Normally she always liked meeting new people, especially with the possibility of becoming friends with them. But after what happened yesterday at the mall, Gypsy was more wary than usual of talking to kids from school, especially from the popular crowd. Maybe Savannah or one of the other girls had passed the word along to the other popular kids, including Suzi.

Suzi nodded at the course Gypsy had been working. "You're really good. How long have you been skating?"

Gypsy blinked. "Oh, um…" She hadn't been expecting that question. "Since I was seven. Ish." She paused. "Somewhere around there."

Suzi smirked at her, which made Gypsy's stomach tense for a moment, but she realized it didn't seem like a mean or condescending smirk, like Savannah's. "It's hard to keep track sometimes, huh?" the girl asked.

Gypsy's smile grew a bit more genuine. "Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to keep count when it's just fun." She wrinkled her nose a bit. "I tend to forget details most of the time."

Suzi chuckled a bit, looking down at her board and spinning one of the wheels. "Sometimes I think I remember _too_ much detail. Keeping track of everything all the time can turn into a pain." Then she gestured to Gypsy's cone line. "You training for something?"

Gypsy shook her head. "Nope, just working on some technique for freestyle stuff." She paused, trying to think of something else to say. Usually she said whatever popped into her head, especially around Indy, but didn't want Suzi to think she was...weird. So she just gave a nod in a 'yeah…' kind of way.

"Do you ever compete?" Suzi asked.

"Uh, not really. I mean, no." She tugged on one of her long ringlets without thinking about it.

Suzi pursed her lips. "You probably should. You're good enough."

Now Gypsy was winding the strand around one of her fingers. "You think so?"

Suzi gave her another smirk-smile. "Yeah, you could probably totally win out your division." Dropping her skateboard, the girl rolled it back and forth a bit with her foot, doing some floor tricks. "So you go to my school, right? Arroyo Middle?"

Gypsy nodded. "We're in the same grade." She wasn't particularly surprised that Suzi didn't know who she was. But then, maybe if she didn't know that she was one of the popular crowd's main targets it would be better. "I'm Gypsy," she offered.

"Right," Suzi said with a nod. "I'm Suzi."

"I know," Gypsy blurted out. Then she blushed a bit, her cheeks tinging pink. "Um, I-I mean...well, you're…" Now both of her hands were tangled up in her hair. "You hang out with, um, all the other...cool people." Her voice came out small from the side of her mouth.

Suzi laughed a bit at that. "I see my reputation precedes me." She shrugged. "Sometimes the people I hang out with are cool, sometimes they're not." She gave Gypsy one of her smirks. "Your tricks, though. Those are definitely cool."

Gypsy widened her eyes a bit. "Really?"

"Sure." Suzi inclined her head towards the half-pipe. "You wanna go work on some airs with me?"

"R-really?" Gypsy repeated, rising excitement making her stutter a bit. Then she paused. "Wait, um...you're not going to…trip me or anything, are you?"

Suzi snorted in a bit of a laugh, but she crinkled her dark brows at Gypsy like she wasn't sure if she was serious or not. "I think tripping is rather counter-productive to aerials," she said, her voice going slightly dry.

Gypsy giggled a little. "Oh. Okay, good." Suzi's sarcasm reminded her of Christopher, which helped Gypsy to relax more. Suzi seemed genuine.

Happily blading after Suzi on her board, she did a short little hop-skip move into the air. She loved making new friends.

* * *

"And after _that_ we went to go eat at Brown's 'cause she said her friends bailed on her and it was really great!"

Gypsy and Christopher were sitting at one of their usual spots outside in the courtyard, eating lunch under one of the sycamore trees around the yard. Gypsy had been excitedly telling Indy the whole story of what happened over the weekend, after only briefly telling him about it on Sunday. Christopher had mainly just listened as she recounted everything, only occasionally making a comment here and there. A lot of them were dry, but it didn't deter Gypsy's enthusiasm.

Christopher fished around in his bag of chips, pulling out a handful. "So," he said, pausing to crunch down on several chips, "how exactly did you end up hanging out with her again?"

Gypsy shrugged. "She just came over to me while I was working on my in-lines."

"Uh-huh," Indy said slowly. "Interesting."

Gypsy shook one of his arms. "Indyyy, you're acting like you have no opinion and you always have an opinion," she complained.

He gave her an only slightly amused glance. "My opinion is I'm a skeptic."

Frowning at him, she pushed him in the shoulder. "You're skeptical about someone being nice and _friendly_ for once?"

"Yes."

Flopping onto his lap, she looked up at him with a crinkled face. "This is why I'm your only friend."

Indy shrugged. "Probably, but my point still stands."

"Well she wasn't mean at _all_ like other people, so I like her." Gypsy reached up and bonked him in the nose. "And she's snarky like you."

Indy snorted briefly at the last bit. "A mark of true character," he said wryly. He shifted a bit. "I'm more concerned about that fact that she hangs _out_ with 'all the other people' being suspicious, though."

Gypsy made a face. "Next you'll be saying you don't believe in true love, either."

He smiled down at her, leaning on one of his hands. "Well…"

She socked him in the arm. "You're stupid." He laughed.

Sitting back up, she scooched over in front of him. "Can you braid my hair? I have art next class and it keeps getting in my face."

Christopher picked up one of her tangled curls. "I think I'd need a hairbrush."

"Ooh, I have one!" She dove sideways onto the ground to reach her bag, but it was just barely out of her reach. Indy leaned over and nudged it towards her. After rummaging through it and pulling out the purple brush to hand to Indy, Gypsy straightened again and attempted to sit still as he worked through detangling her long curls. She chattered on about various other things, occasionally drifting into silence as Indy worked at her hair. He was halfway through her braid when an unwelcome voice announced the presence of their least favorite people.

"Well look at who's taking an interest in makeovers," Savannah greeted them. Gypsy looked up and immediately tore out the grass she was playing with by its roots. She quickly lowered her eyes again.

"Do we need to start calling him _Christina?_ " Ty said with a laugh. "Though, he'd make a pretty ugly girl."

"Ignore them, Gyp," Indy immediately muttered to her, firmly continuing to concentrate on her braid.

Gypsy reached to tug at her hair, but of course Christopher was holding onto all of it. Her fingers brushed against one of his hands by accident and she reluctantly wished she could hold onto that instead. Whether it was her touch or because he read her mind, however, Christopher released some of her hair for a moment to squeeze her hand reassuringly. She relaxed a little bit and scooted back to press closer to him.

"Aw, that's really sweet," Savannah said, bending over closer to Gypsy's face. Gypsy nervously glanced at her, then down into her lap. She could smell the girl's flowery perfume and it made Gypsy want to sneeze. "You know, the effort is nice," Savannah continued, "but I'm afraid there's not much to work with."

Gypsy flinched when the girl flicked a stray hair out of her eyes. "There's not much point in trying to make something pretty that isn't, is there?"

"You still try."

At Christopher's cold remark, Savannah narrowed her eyes at him and stood back up properly, crossing her arms. "Whale-Boy thinks he's being intimidating again, Ty."

"Not at all, just pointing out the obvious," Indy said coolly. Gypsy heard the snap of the elastic hairband as he finished off her braid. Gypsy glanced over as he put her hairbrush away and started packing up their things. She stood up when Indy tapped her on the shoulder.

Savannah curled her lip at them. "Something reeks. I think someone needs to take the _trash_ out."

"We, um, should get to class," Gypsy said, her voice timid. She clung to Indy's arm.

Ty clearly had a different agenda, however. Gypsy squeaked in alarm when Christopher was shoved up against the trunk of the tree. "Pretty sure there's still a dumpster with his name on it in the back, Sav," Ty said casually, looking like he was enjoying himself.

"Ty, let go of him!" Gypsy pleaded, tugging at the soccer player's arm. Ty only pushed her away, and Gypsy felt a sob start to build up in her throat as Indy glared up at the other boy.

"Would you lay off him, Ty?"

Gypsy looked over at the new voice and was surprised to see none other than Suzi walking up. The girl raised her eyebrows at the soccer player, but there was a fierce look in her eyes.

Ty laid his forearm across Indy's chest and leaned against it so he could turn slightly to look at Suzi. "Come to help, Sue?"

Suzi scowled at him. "Don't you have anyone better to go dumpster-dunking with?" She crossed her arms. "Why don't you go find Clayne and see if he fits in with the scenery better?"

Ty gave a low scoff. "Harsh coming from you, Sue. Why don't _you_ run off and find Clayne so he can help me drag Whale-Boy to the dump." He snickered. "His blubber might squash me on the way up, otherwise." Ty turned back to pin Christopher properly to the tree again, but Suzi caught his wrist in mid-air. The boy narrowed his eyes at her.

"Leave it for today, Ty." Suzi gave him a hard look. "Is that so hard to do?"

Ty and Suzi had a staredown for several moments. Savannah apparently didn't want to mess with Suzi, because she stayed out of it, though she was giving the Latina girl a sour look. Gypsy nervously stayed where she was, glancing between everyone and holding out hope.

Just then, the bell rang, finally signaling the end of lunch. Ty gave the noise a short glare before shooting Suzi an irritated look. "Fine, Sue," he growled. "Another day."

Suzi released Ty's arm, but the boy promptly used it to elbow Christopher hard in the gut. He stepped away as Christopher doubled over coughing and Gypsy rushed up to her friend. Suzi snapped something at Ty, but Gypsy was no longer paying attention. It also kind of sounded Spanish. Then Ty and Savannah were gone.

"Sorry about that," Suzi muttered to Christopher. "Are you okay?"

"I—I had him on the ropes," Christopher said, trying for a good-humored smirk but kind of losing the effect through his coughing. Finally catching his breath back, he slowly straightened up.

Suzi gave him a dry smile. "Sure, kid."

Gypsy latched onto Indy in a hug. Indy gave her a short part. "It was the dumpster, Gyp, not death," he mumbled.

"He _hurt_ you this time, though," she said with a frown.

"It's not that bad," he assured in a quiet tone.

"Uh, is he sure he's okay?" Suzi raised an eyebrow at both of them. "I think his voice is broken."

"No, he does that. He just likes to pretend it is," Gypsy told Suzi, looking over at her.

"Don't tell her my secrets," Indy mumbled to her.

"Shut up, Indy," she said, nudging him in the arm. She gave him a look and he smirked a bit at her. Gypsy turned to the girl, who was eyeing Indy with a bit of an odd look, like she wasn't sure what to make of him.

"Thanks, Suzi," Gypsy said, giving the girl a small smile.

Suzi shrugged. "Sorry I didn't see you guys sooner." She glanced back at the school building where Savannah and Ty had disappeared into, apparently as unconcerned with being on time for class as Gypsy and Indy were. "Are they always doing that to you two?" she asked, a frown in her voice.

"Uh, well it's not always the dumpster," Gypsy said. "When was the last time they locked you in the showers?" she whispered loudly to Indy.

"Tuesday," he supplied to her in a mumble.

"Yeah," Gypsy said with a nod, "sometimes they do that. Occasionally supply closets and fountains. Uh, some other things." She gave a small shudder. "The tool shed's the worst. It's dark and there's spiders."

" _Dios_ ," Suzi muttered. Then it sounded like she said something else in Spanish, but Gypsy didn't know what it meant. She didn't think it sounded very nice, though.

"You two sound like a handful," she said in English, her voice dry.

"Uh, sorry," Gypsy said out of the side of her mouth. She glanced over at a nudge from Indy. She widened her eyes at him in a look and tilted her head towards Suzi. He gave her a disgruntled look back, apparently grumpy. And stubborn.

Blowing him in the face, Gypsy turned back to Suzi. "Indy says 'thank you.'" Christopher grunted behind her, but she ignored him.

Suzi raised a slight eyebrow at her. "You can tell Indy 'you're welcome.'"

"Does that mean Indy can go," he grumbled. Gypsy kicked him in the shin.

"We should probably all get to class," Suzi said, shouldering her bag. She nodded to Indy. "Try not to get beat up in the meantime and maybe I can cover the rest."

Indy made a rather noncommittal noise in response.

Waving as Suzi walked away, Gypsy dragged Indy back to the building doors. "Come on, Caveman."

"Mmrgh."

"Stop that."

* * *

 _[A few weeks later]_

"Can I get some ice," Christopher muttered as they walked into Suzi's living room, letting his backpack slide off his shoulder and thump to the floor a bit carelessly.

Suzi frowned a bit, but she complied, heading to her kitchen. "I'll get you a bag," she told him over her shoulder, though he hardly even acknowledged her. Letting out a short, resigning breath, she left the room.

She came back to see Christopher quietly talking to Gypsy, but his voice petered out when she came back into view. She raised an eyebrow at him but didn't mention it, simply handing him the bag. Gypsy, however, nudged him. He only gave her a look in return, before pressing the ice to a spot on his shoulder.

"What is that from this time," Suzi asked, though her voice was a bit too flat for it to be a real question.

"Ty."

Suzi rolled her eyes. "No, I thought Savannah gave you bruises," she said dryly.

"Indy, what happened?" Gypsy asked him, fretful concern in her voice. She pushed at the bag of ice and Christopher removed it, allowing her to roll up his sleeve. What looked like a decent-sized bruise was beginning to form there, looking like it was in the process of deepening to a purple shade.

Christopher mumbled something to Gyp that was too quiet for Suzi to hear—a very common practice of his that had gotten old rather quickly with her—and, trying to keep her exasperation under wraps, she raised her eyebrows at Gypsy in a question.

Gypsy bumped Christopher's leg with her foot, giving him a look between him and Suzi. Christopher sighed.

"He found out who messed with his locker," he muttered, not really looking at Suzi despite clarifying to her.

Suzi pursed her lips, undecided whether to be irritated or impressed. "That was you?"

Christopher gave her a flat look like ' _Well, who else?_ '

She sighed loudly through her nose. "Why do you keep going at it with Ty?"

Christopher only gave a grunt.

"Seriously, you could avoid half of these if you just left it alone."

"He started it," he grumbled.

"You _do_ realize you're not actually helping anything by stoking the fire, right?" she asked, her voice nearing a snap.

Christopher made a low noise, now pointedly looking in a different direction.

"Do you _want_ Ty to keep beating you up?" Her voice came out fully sharpened this time.

Christopher didn't even pretend to respond.

Gypsy, on the other hand, looked a bit uncomfortable. "Guys…" she said, a bit hesitantly. "Can we just...calm down for a second?"

Her hazel eyes were large and wide and hard not to listen to. So against her better judgement, Suzi shut up about it. Pressing her lips together, she turned away for a moment, rubbing her eyes.

"Indy, she's kinda right," she heard Gypsy say in a quieter voice. Glancing back, she saw Gypsy had put her hand over Christopher's, with the other tugging on her hair like it often was. Some sort of nervous habit, Suzi noted. She didn't want to stare, but she carefully studied Christopher's reaction.

Christopher glanced at Gypsy for a moment. He shifted how he was sitting and then studied the bag of ice he was holding.

"It's leaking."

Suzi glanced at the ice bag, which actually was dripping water onto the hardwood floor. She crossed her arms, but not in her usual brusque way. "You can get a new one from the kitchen if you like," she told him, nodding in the direction for him. "Bags are in the drawer by the fridge."

Christopher sat there for a moment longer, then got up and headed for where she'd indicated.

"Is he always like this?" Suzi asked once he was out of earshot, looking at Indy's retreating form. She went over and sat down next to Gypsy.

"No, not normally. Well, I mean I guess it's normal for around other people. Mainly around people he doesn't know very well."

Suzi pursed her lips. "So you mean like me."

Gypsy shrugged a bit, but gave Suzi a small smile. "He'll get used to you eventually. He's just used to people being mean or pretend nice, you know?" She wrinkled her nose. "Honestly, I think he'd rather them just be mean to his face and get it over with rather than faking it. Then he knows he can just label them as jerks and move on." Gypsy swayed into Suzi in a nudge and smiled. "I'm trying to show him not everyone is bad, though."

Suzi shifted in her spot and glanced away from Gypsy's gaze. "Yeah."

Gypsy looked down and fiddled with one of the drawstrings on her rainbow hoody. "He just doesn't trust strangers very easily. I think he got picked on before I moved here, too." Gypsy glanced at Suzi. "He never really had any friends before me, you know." She looked in the direction Christopher had gone off in. "I'm kind of his first and only friend."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

Gypsy cocked her head at Suzi. "Did you guys go to the same elementary?"

Suzi hesitated. "I don't think so. I don't remember him from then. I went to Arroyo Burro Elementary."

Gypsy's head bobbed. "Yeah, that's where he went. I didn't start going there with him until second grade, but he was there before that. You're sure you don't remember him?"

"No," Suzi admitted. "Guess he was quiet then too. I didn't know he got teased then, either."

"Yeah…" Gypsy frowned. "He's just shy and so people don't know how great he is. And he ignores the way everyone treats him and acts like it doesn't make him feel bad, but he actually is really self-conscious." She gave a small smile. "He just kinda hides it by being angry."

"I hadn't noticed," Suzi said dryly. Hearing Gypsy talk about it all, however, was making Suzi feel extremely guilty. Even though she'd changed her mind about the Bet Thing, she'd still started everything out under false pretenses. She was basically no better than all the other people that had ever picked on the two friends.

Suzi was hesitant for a while, but she finally ventured into saying something. "Listen, Gypsy," she said slowly, looking over at the girl. The blonde gave her a happy, expectant look, and Suzi had to look away again. Dangit. "I really need to explain...well I mean, that first day when I came up to you—"

Just then, Christopher walked back into the room and Suzi stopped herself in the middle of what she was saying. It would be a lot harder to explain to him than it would to Gypsy. She didn't entirely trust herself to find the words for that yet.

"What about the first day?" Gypsy asked, tilting her head.

Suzi briefly glanced over at Christopher. "On second thought, I'll tell you about it another time, Gypsy."

Christopher raised an eyebrow at her, then narrowed his eyes a bit. He went to go sit over by Gypsy with his new bag of ice, though, not saying a word.

Repressing a sigh, Suzi leaned an elbow on the armrest of the couch. She would have to tell them before someone else did, but she had no idea when the right time would be.

* * *

There was a long pause.

Suddenly, Christopher swiped the scrapbook from Suzi's lap, where it had ended up getting transferred to as Gypsy told the story. Suzi immediately went to grab it back.

" _Indy!_ " she snapped.

"Hah!" He jumped to his feet as Suzi tried to grab at it. He held it up and away.

"Indy, don't touch anything in it!"

"You're going to ruin it, nimrod!"

Daquiri stayed on the couch, unsure of what to do as Gypsy practically danced around Christopher, trying to jump at all angles to catch hold of the book—despite being hopelessly too short—and Suzi kept trying to whack him. Christopher just kept laughing and keeping the scrapbook high out of reach, somehow managing to simultaneously block the majority of Suzi's hits.

"I win!" he crowed triumphantly, backing up towards the foyer as Gypsy and Suzi both tried to tackle him from the front.

"Indyyy, don't you dare burn it!" Gypsy whined, somehow managing to actually hang onto him from his shoulder. Christopher only dragged her backwards with him, apparently undeterred.

"I'm not going to burn it," he insisted.

Gypsy paused in her tugging. "You're not?"

Christopher grinned. "No, I was planning on shredding it and throwing it in the ocean."

"That's _worse!_ " Gypsy yelped, and proceeded to try to climb up his arm.

Somehow—seriously, _Daquiri_ didn't even see him come in—Gypsy's brother suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"This is mine," Ax said, plucking the scrapbook from Christopher's hand and walking off with it without so much as slowing his step.

Christopher blinked when he suddenly wasn't holding the book anymore, then looked over to where Ax was walking out the door. "What?"

Suzi took the opportunity to punch Christopher in the shoulder.

"Ow."

"You lose."

Christopher looked back at the door. "Where did he even come from?"

* * *

 **A/N:** I'm very close to being done with Pt. II, so that would should be much sooner in coming to make up for the huge gap. And if it's any consolation, when I'm not working on a current chapter I'm normally working on future upcoming chapters, so those shouldn't take as long to write? Yeah? No? Okay. Well, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you're looking forward to the next! The continuation of puberty-stricken tweens, yay! Please leave reviews, I love to hear from you guys. :-)


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N:** So...I'm back from my hiatus? Apparently summer vacation also meant a vacation from writing, because I got a bit of bad writer's block over the summer months. Maybe my brain only works when it's being forced into practical school mode? Who knows. But it was rather unfortunate, especially since I had wanted to be at least halfway through the story at this point (13 chapters). However, good news on that note is that I have a lot written for future chapters, some chapters even fully written, so that technically gives me some sort of buffer and hopefully some early uploads for you guys. Sorry for the delay for those of you that are actually following this story-and than you for being patient for those of you still following! Hope you enjoy the wrap up to Gypsy's story in this chapter. :-)

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 9| UNLIKELY FRIENDS, PT. II**

Daquiri stared after Axel. "So...was that the end?"

"No," Gypsy said with a frown, "that was Indy being stupid." She glared at him. "Now I don't have my book!"

Christopher gave her a sheepish smile. "Oops. Guess we can't finish the story."

"What a shame," Suzi put in.

"Nooo we have to finish it!" Gypsy insisted, her voice taking on a whine.

"But we have no book," Christopher said, holding out his empty hands with an innocent look.

Gypsy whacked him.

"Hold on, Gyp," Suzi interrupted. "I doubt Ri even wants to hear the end. She's probably bored out of her mind."

Even though Suzi's voice had its normal dry tone, Daquiri was pretty sure her words had an ulterior motive. While stories people told usually _did_ bore her, Daquiri couldn't help but be interested in this particular one if not simply for the reason that Christopher and Suzi seemed to be so against it.

So it was Daquiri's turn to make an innocent face. "I don't see any reason why not to continue it."

Christopher and Suzi both gave her looks. She just gave them a small, serene smile.

"Yay!" Gypsy made a fist pump in the air, then gave a 'hah, take that' look to Suzi and Christopher. "Back to the couch!"

Daquiri was less amused when the three of them all squeezed back onto the couch next to her. Suzi and Gypsy gave a reasonable amount of space between them, but with the addition of Christopher—well, Daquiri didn't appreciate the close contact.

"Indy, shove off, you're too fat for the couch," Suzi said over Daquiri's head, apparently sharing her same opinion. Sitting between two people that were much taller than her was making Daquiri feel a bit claustrophobic.

"I was here first, shove yourself off," Christopher retorted, back over Daquiri's head. Daquiri tried not to scowl.

"It's okay!" Gypsy chirped. "I'll move!" Before anyone else could say anything, Gypsy hopped up and unceremoniously plopped herself onto Christopher's lap.

"Oof," Christopher said, probably more out of surprise than because of the addition of Gypsy's weight. He shifted slightly, giving himself more room and leaning between the armrest and back of the couch.

Despite not being squished anymore, Daquiri wasn't sure how she felt with Christopher being next to her now.

"Okay, children," Gypsy announced, clapping her hands. "Back to the story."

* * *

"Ready for lunch, Gypsy?"

Gypsy gave a small jump at Suzi's voice and spun around away from her locker to face her. The blonde seemed to relax when she recognized Suzi. "Hi, yeah," she said quickly, her voice practically a chirp and her smile jumping on and off her face before Suzi could even blink.

Suzi raised an eyebrow a bit but didn't comment on the display. "Where's Christopher?"

Glancing around, Gypsy stuck her thumbnail into her mouth and started chewing. "I'm not sure," she mumbled around it. "We usually try to meet before the lunchroom."

"Well, maybe he's just stuck behind in a class for a minute or something," Suzi offered. "How about we head to the cafeteria and you can let him know we're there?"

"I guess." Gypsy grabbed her book for next class from her locker before shutting it and following after Suzi down the hall. Suzi noted how close Gypsy seemed to be keeping to her. Though, she wasn't sure if it was because Christopher wasn't there or if it was just a new development. She'd been trying to keep tabs on Gypsy at school as much as she could, but she was concerned about how much teasing the girl was receiving when she wasn't around. Though at this point, it seemed to have moved past teasing to straight-up tormenting. Suzi needed to put a stop to this _somehow_ , but...she hadn't quite figured out how yet.

They were halfway across the lunchroom when Suzi suddenly spotted Savannah—speak of the she-devil—and her friends walking their way. Suzi started to turn to Gypsy, but it was apparent the springy-haired blonde had seen the posse as well—she'd already ducked behind a trash can.

"Gypsy. What are you doing." Suzi's voice held no amusement.

Gypsy peeked out slightly from behind the trashcan. "Are they gone?"

Suzi gave a slight huff. "Gypsy, get up," she said, bending down to take her arm and pull her back up. Gypsy only slightly resisted her, looking around nervously as she stood back up.

"Gypsy," Suzi said firmly, "you don't have to hide."

Gypsy looked down a bit. "It's just...better if they don't see me at all." She tugged on her hair. "Thentheywon'tbotherme."

"I won't let them bother you," Suzi reassured. "Not while I'm around."

Gypsy chewed on her cheek. "Okay." She paused. "But what about—"

Suddenly, her phone went off. She pulled it out and checked it, and then frowned. "Indy needs help. Ty locked him in the supply closet."

Suzi tried not to sigh. "Which one?"

"Um, the one in B-Wing."

"Wonder what he did this time," Suzi muttered, following after Gypsy as she hurried off back to the hallways.

"It doesn't always have to be something Indy did," Gypsy said defensively. "Ty picks on him for no reason all the time."

"Yes," Suzi said dryly, "but it's usually Indy's fault that it escalates."

Gypsy frowned but she didn't say anything. It took them several more minutes to get over to B Wing. Gypsy stopped at the supply closet door. "Indy?"

"Present," a bored-sounding voice said from inside.

Pulling out a ring of keys from her bag, Gypsy found the right one and fit it into the lock.

Suzi eyed them. "Where did you even get those?"

"My brother." She unlocked the door and opened it to Christopher sitting on an overturned bucket, his chin in his hand as he aimlessly stacked kleenex boxes and toilet paper rolls into different designs. "He has a key to every room in the middle and high school."

"Where did he even—" Suzi stopped herself, deciding not to ask. She glanced around the supply closet, her eyes lingering on Christopher's sculptures. "What the heck are those, Braddock?"

Christopher gave her a rather apathetic look. "Modern works of art." He stood up and Gypsy and Suzi stepped aside so he could get out of the closet.

Gypsy hooked her arm through Christopher's. "What happened, Indy?"

He gave a small shrug. "I—"

"He was being a moron, that's what," another voice said.

Suzi saw Gypsy's grip tightened around Christopher's arm out of the corner of her eye. The blonde pushed against her friend when Ty and several of his friends came around the corner.

"I suppose it's not really his fault, though," the kid continued, walking towards them. "I mean, whales _are_ pretty dumb."

"Indy, let's just go," Gypsy pressed nervously, pushing against him to go the opposite direction.

Suzi figured that if she said anything Christopher would just want to do the opposite, so she kept quiet. Luckily Gypsy seemed to be convincing enough for him, because he ignored Ty and started down the other hallway at his friend's bidding. Relieved, Suzi fell into step on Gypsy's other side.

"Still insisting on protecting your new _friends_ , Suzi?"

Suzi frowned when Savannah suddenly appeared in front of them at the end of the hallway. She raised a dark eyebrow. "What was this supposed to be, Savannah? Some kind of ambush?" There was no humor in her voice.

Savannah gave her a tight smile. "Not an ambush, Sue. Just a little chat." She flashed her teeth. "You know, between friends."

"Then we can talk when we're actually alone," she returned dryly. "You know, between _friends_." Suzi pushed past the girl, making sure Gypsy, and consequently Christopher, was in tow.

"So you told them about our little deal then, huh?"

"Shut up, Savannah." Suzi kept walking.

"Deal?" Gypsy whispered to her.

"It's nothing, Gypsy," she told the girl. "Just ignore her." Her mind was racing, though. This was exactly what Suzi had _not_ wanted to happen.

"Don't you think they deserve to _know_ , Sue?"

Suzi paused to look over her shoulder. "If you keep talking out of your ass, Savannah, I swear I will punch you right in the nose." She glanced back over to see Christopher urging Gypsy to keep going, since she had stopped next to Suzi and was sending confused glances between her and Savannah. Suzi hoped he would get her out of here.

Rolling her eyes, she stalked up to Savannah, who had casually leaned herself up against the wall. "Look, Savannah," she growled, her voice low, "I already told you I don't want any part in this stupid bet anymore. You need to leave Gypsy and Christopher _alone_. Or _you_ can be the one to start going home with black eyes."

"I'd watch it with the threats, Sue," Savannah said, a sneer in her voice. "I'm a lot better at getting people into trouble than _losers_ are."

"It's harder to get people in trouble when it's not done on school grounds, though, isn't it?" Suzi's voice stayed at a growl.

Savannah lifted her chin, but there was no way she was going to get any height on Suzi, who was a good few inches taller than her. "I can still go to your parents," she threatened, but she sounded less sure of herself.

Suzi gave a short scoff. "My mother wouldn't give a rat's _a—_ "

Suzi cut herself off when she suddenly heard another commotion behind her. She whipped around and swore under her breath when she saw Ty and his friends had somehow gotten past her and cornered Gypsy and Christopher. Christopher had stepped forward in front of Gypsy and had already escalated to straight up death-glaring at Ty.

Stalking over, Suzi grabbed up one of the guy's wrists. "Clayne, what are you doing here," she hissed.

Clayne gave her a goofy smile like the usual doofus he was. "Just joining in on the fun, Sue," he said, like it was just another day surfing at the beach.

"Get the hell out of here," she growled. "You'd do well _not_ to run with the rest of these idiots."

"Aw, Sue, that hurts my feelings," Ty spoke up, glancing over at her with a smirk as he took a step closer to Christopher. "Idiots? I thought we were friends."

Pushing her way into the circle of guys, she stepped between Ty and Christopher and crossed her arms. She may not have been taller than Ty, but she _did_ have at least an inch on Christopher. She set her face into a hard, stony expression. "Not while you're doing this."

"Way to betray your own, Suzi." Savannah shoved one of Ty's friend's aside to stand next to Ty. The girl crossed her arms, a slightly smug look on her face. "And to think this all just started out as a _dare_. Pretty shallow of you to just flake like that, huh?"

"Shut up, Savannah," Suzi snapped, her fists clenching. She knew as far as it went for Christopher, he could figure out the truth for himself now.

But he wasn't really the one she was concerned about.

Savannah put a hand to her mouth, her lips forming a small "o" as her eyes widened in faux surprise. "You mean you haven't _told_ them yet, Sue?"

"I said _shut up, Savannah._ " Suzi's voice rose sharply. "We're leaving," she growled. She tried to push a hole through the barrier of athletes so she could leave with Christopher and Gypsy, but none of them let her through. She glared at all of them and cussed several of them out in Spanish. Jaelon, Savannah's boyfriend, only laughed before looking back to Ty.

Unable to do anything about it, Suzi only kept up her glare when Savannah now addressed the two Ty had cornered in the first place. She supposed she could tackle Savannah to shut her trap or any other number of things, but, honestly, the damage had already been done. It might as well play the rest of the way out.

"Gypsy, sweetie, you look like you're about to cry," Savannah said in a sympathetic voice. "But hey, I'd probably be upset, too—if the only _real_ friend I could make was a socially challenged, loser _fat_ kid, I don't think I'd be able to make friends with anyone else, either." Savannah put a hand on her hip. "Or I guess I should say no one would _want_ to be friends with me. You know my friend Suzi here—she only gave you the time of day because of a _bet?_ "

"I _dropped_ that stupid game of yours, Savannah," Suzi snapped.

"Only because you _lost_ ," Savannah sneered. "You were supposed to fake befriend _both_ of the biggest losers in school." The bouncy-haired brunette curled a lip in Christopher and Gypsy's direction. "The _Whale_ clearly saw right through your act."

"It was not an act," Suzi barked. "We _are_ real friends."

"Didn't start that way, though, did it, Suzi-Q?"

"Call me that again and you will immediately regret it," Suzi growled.

"Try to stand up for them all you want, Sue," Savannah said, a smug smirk on her face as she crossed her arms. "I don't think _anyone_ will ever do as good a job as you did at showing just how _friendless_ these two _worthless_ _wastes of space_ really are."

Savannah flipped her hair over her shoulder. "C'mon, Ty," she said, pulling at the athlete as she turned away. "We're done."

"Till next time, lard-face," Ty said, addressing Christopher with a grin and a wink. Then he and his friends dispersed.

There were several long moments of silence. Suzi had to work up her own courage to turn around and face the two friends.

"Gypsy…" Suzi reached out to put a hand on Gypsy's arm, but the girl took a step back. Suzi almost physically winced at the look of hurt on her face.

"You mean," she said, her voice trembling a bit, "you never really...wanted to be my friend?"

"Gypsy, no," Suzi said immediately. "We _are_ friends."

"But…" Gypsy's voice was quiet. "Th-that day at the park...when you came up to me…"

"Everything I told you then was true," Suzi said, trying not to sound desperate. "Gypsy, _please_ believe me. I never meant to hurt you."

Gypsy blinked rapidly, her eyes glistening and threatening to spill over. "But you lied," she said, her voice small. A heavy tear finally escaped, rolling down her cheek. "I...I trusted you."

"Gyp, come on," Christopher told her gently, putting an arm around his friend and steering her away.

"Gypsy, _please_. You can still trust me, I promise. I _am_ your fr—"

"Leave it, Suzi," Christopher interrupted her, his voice stoically firm. She could hear plenty of pent-up anger there as well, however. "You should just go."

Suzi stopped following after them, standing and watching as Christopher led a torn Gypsy away.

Torn up not because of Savannah, or Ty, or any of the girl's other regular bullies. It was _her_ fault.

 _Dios_ , she'd messed up.

* * *

"Indy, do we have to go to school tomorrow?"

Gypsy and Christopher were both lying on the floor of Gypsy's bedroom, not really doing anything. Sir Frederick Johnson III, her hedgehog, had been let out and was waddling around on the floor around them, occasionally crawling over them when he found one of them interesting, but was otherwise just kind of chilling and being adorable like usual. Gypsy reached out a hand to him to pet his prickles.

Christopher glanced over at her. "Technically, we're kinda required to by law."

Giving a sigh, Gypsy let the hand she was using to pet Frederick flop back to the ground. "I don't wanna go."

"I don't really wanna go either, Gyp."

Gypsy stared up at the glow-in-the-dark rainbow stars stuck to her ceiling. "We agreed that telling people about it was bad, right?"

"Yes."

Gypsy's gaze drooped. "Okay." She picked at the carpet. "...what about transferring?"

Indy didn't say anything for several moments. "We'd have to at least tell our parents then. Other schools are far enough away they might just try to fix it here."

She went back to silence again for a minute. "Homeschool?"

"All of our parents work."

She didn't say anything after that. Several tears began to leak out, but she didn't make any noise until her nose became runny enough that she had to sniff. She wiped her face on her sleeve.

Christopher rolled over onto his side to face her. "It'll turn out okay, Gyp."

Gypsy sniffled again, the tears coming more freely at his words. "H-how do you know?"

He paused for several moments. "Everything has to change eventually. Life doesn't stay constant."  
"C-can it change now?" she whimpered, turning to him.

"It's okay," he said, putting a consoling arm around her. His voice sounded like it was trying to be gentler, but mainly just came out quieter. "It'll be okay."

She pressed into him and an actual sob escaped into his chest. "I-I d-don't wanna be sc-scared anymore," she sobbed. Indy held her close, wrapping both arms around her in a hug. He didn't respond, just letting her cry. She'd been doing a lot of that since last week.

Ever since the thing with Suzi had come out, the teasing and bothering and _everything_ had somehow managed to get worse, and Gypsy didn't think she could take anymore. Indy was the only thing holding her together anymore. As she more quietly cried in Indy's solid grasp, she miserably mused over how that statement seemed literal, too.

"I think I'm failing Algebra," she sniffled, changing the subject.

"I can help you study more," Indy offered immediately. "We can just keep going over it until it makes sense, okay?"

"I don't know if there's a point," she said dejectedly. "The teacher just thinks I'm dumb."

"Hey," he admonished, sitting up. He pulled her up next to him. "No one thinks you're dumb. So what if you need to study extra? Everyone needs help with something."

Gypsy fidgeted with her hair. " _You_ don't need help in any of your classes."

Christopher smiled a bit. "But I suck at talking to people." He nudged her a bit. "You know what you're better at than anyone?"

She looked up at him with a doubtful look, her mouth pulling into a small bow to the side. "What?"

"Always seeing what's good in everyone."

Gypsy frowned. "What's that good for?"

"Well for one," Indy paused to pick up Sir Frederick and set him on her lap, "it means you see me as more than the cynical, nerdy fat kid with a death wish." He smirked a bit.

"You're not fat!" Gypsy protested. She hugged him. "There's just more of you to love than everyone else!"

Indy laughed a bit. "See. Like that."

Gypsy gave a small smile, but it quickly faded as she looked back down to Sir Frederick in her lap. She slowly ran a hand over his prickles. "What's the good in seeing good when everyone's mean anyway, though?"

"You'll eventually find someone who's nice to you back. Like Ax."

Gypsy looked back up at him with an immediate frown. "Ax isn't mean!"

"See." Indy put an arm around her. "If you keep being nice to everyone—keep being _you_ —it'll come back to you eventually. With some people, it just takes them longer than others." He gave her shoulders a slight squeeze. "You just gotta be patient and keep the faith until then."

Gypsy sucked in a slow breath. "You think so?"

"Know so. Now c'mon." Indy started to get up, pulling her with him. "We'll miss _Psych_ if we stay in here all afternoon."

Gypsy put on a thoughtful look as she went limp and made Indy pull her up entirely. "Do you think we'll have our own detective agency like Shawn and Gus one day?"

"Not if you keep playing deadweight every time I try to take you anywhere."

"That will never change."

"Then no."

* * *

"I need to talk to you."

Christopher looked over when Suzi appeared by his locker. He stared at her for a long moment. "...why?" he said slowly, continuing to give her a look.

Suzi leaned up against the locker next to Christopher's. "Gypsy has been avoiding me and I need help explaining to her."

"Oh," he said simply. Without any further response, he started messing with the lock on his locker.

"You know a conversation works better when you actually talk."

"Well, I—" He gestured a bit helplessly, apparently having nothing else to say. He glanced at her briefly before turning back to his locker. He tugged it open.

A cascade of yellow-orange came out of it as soon as he did. When it settled, Suzi saw it was an absurd amount of whale-shaped cheese crackers. They both stared at the mess on the floor. There were some snickers and guffaws from other kids around them in the hallway. Suzi glared at a few of them, but Christopher seemed to ignore it.

"I think the maturity of the kids at this school degrades at a daily rate," she told him, her voice a bit dry.

Christopher just huffed and brushed aside a pile of crackers to grab the books he was after. He grabbed the handful of crackers that was on top and popped some into his mouth as he nonchalantly closed the locker again.

Suzi gave him a look. "Really."

"What?" Christopher said with his mouth full.

She gave the crackers scattered at their feet a distasteful look. "They're not even the name brand kind."

Christopher gave a slight shrug. "It was just gonna go to waste otherwise," he mumbled more than said. He paused for a moment before turning to walk away.

Not letting him get away just yet, she fell in step next to him. "Why do you do that," she demanded.

He glanced over at her. "Because food is food?"

Suzi rolled her eyes to the ceiling for a moment. "Forget about your stomach for a moment. I'm talking about your completely whacked up ideas of social confrontation. You get into all this trouble _trying_ to get back at Ty, but then you avoid the simplest conversations with everything that speaks words aside from Gypsy."

Christopher didn't respond right away. "I'm not really good at talking."

"You don't seem to have a problem saying the things that end with you getting your butt kicked," she returned flatly.

"That doesn't count."

"Oh, no?" Suzi snorted. "Just the things that might actually make you friends?"

Christopher gave an imperceptible grumble.

"Would you _stop_ that?" she snapped in irritation, suddenly speeding up her pace to step in front of him and walk backwards. "Muttering half your replies under your breath does _not_ count as conversation."

Another grumble.

She stopped him with a sudden hand on his shoulder. "Do you _like_ having no friends? Is that it?"

Christopher jerked back at her touch. "I can't talk to people so I don't talk to people, why are you still talking to me?"

"I'm pretty sure you talk _fine_ ," Suzi retorted, crossing her arms in front of her. "And right now, I need you to help me talk to Gypsy."

Christopher's look soured slightly. "Why don't you fix it yourself, it's your mess," he grumbled.

Suzi checked her irritation, trying to dissipate her anger with a slow sigh through her nose. "Look, Christopher. I've told you about fifty times before that I'm sorry because I am. But no matter the way you think or feel about me, I _know_ you care about how Gypsy feels more. And I know I hurt her more than anyone." Suzi let her arms uncross and fall to her sides. "You're the only one she trusts, so you're the only one who can help me fix it."

Christopher didn't say anything for a short bit. He glanced at Suzi once or twice briefly. Then he took a slight step back. "I need to get to class," he said in a mumble. He skirted around her.

Suzi felt like pulling her hair out by its roots. She wanted to stop Christopher again to hound him, but from what small amount of time she'd managed to spend around him with Gypsy, she was pretty sure that wouldn't end well. And it was also technically true that she needed to get to class as well.

With a sigh, she leaned against the lockers for a few moments. Without Christopher, she didn't know how she would be able to repair her friendship with Gypsy.

* * *

It was Christopher she was looking for again when the unfortunate scene happened in the cafeteria.

She was honestly a little surprised to see Gypsy walking alone with her lunch. She wasn't sure there was a free period where she'd ever seen the two separated for long; then again, it wasn't until a short while ago that she'd started to pay attention to the fact.

Either way, she figured Christopher must be somewhere nearby, but instead of seeing Gypsy's friend making his way towards her, she spotted someone who probably had much less sincere intentions. The fact that it was Clayne of all people made her both curious and wary. She started making her way across the cafeteria towards the girl as well. It was only to her horror that she realized too late what he was about to do.

Gypsy looked up when Clayne called her name, but it was much too belated to avoid running into the boy. It was clearly by no accident, however, that Clayne's tray of food collided with Gypsy's face. The boy laughingly apologized as he stepped back, and Suzi decided that the next time she got him alone, she was going to punch him straight in the nose. And make sure it broke.

Gypsy didn't seem to know what to do. She stood there frozen, nacho cheese oozing down the side of her face and sour cream making sticky clumps in her hair. Suzi hurried the rest of the way over to her and put a hand on the girl's arm. She ignored all the laughter from the kids around them.

The girl's lower lip was trembling. She jerked away from Suzi's sudden touch, dropping her lunch tray to the floor with a clatter.

"Gypsy, it's okay," Suzi said quickly, trying to make her tone calming. She took another step towards the girl, but Gypsy backed away, shaking her head and looking like she was about to burst into tears. Then she simply turned tail and fled.

Suzi followed her all the way out into the hallway, only for the girl to blindly run straight into Christopher of all people as he turned the corner. Suzi stopped a few feet away.

"Woah, Gyp!" He was obviously surprised, but he immediately went to try to steady Gypsy, holding her at either shoulder. The girl struggled against him wildly for a moment, seeming to not realize it was her friend. Christopher had to reassure her multiple times before it finally got through to her and she clung to him.

Christopher's brow was furrowed in a frown, clearly wondering what had just happened, but he held Gypsy without question while she almost hysterically cried. He looked up at Suzi. His expression immediately morphed into an accusing glare.

Suzi glared back at him, irritated that he just _immediately_ assumed she was the problem. "Clayne dumped food on her in front of everyone," she told him, keeping her voice low. She didn't want to upset Gypsy more.

Christopher frowned, keeping up the look for a moment, but then he seemed to reluctantly let it go. He refocused his attention to Gypsy.

"Hey, Gyp," he said, his voice gentle, "it's okay." He rubbed her back a bit, and Suzi watched a bit curiously as he seemed to expertly calm her down, reassuring and softly hushing her until she had stopped crying.

"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up," he told her, his tone light. Suzi took a few steps towards them.

"Can I help?" she asked.

Christopher gave her a look over Gypsy's head. "I've got it handled."

Suzi raised an eyebrow at him. "You planning on taking her to the boy's bathroom or are you taking a trip to the little girl's?"

Christopher stared at her straight for several stubborn moments, looking like he really did not want to admit she was right. He dropped it finally, muttering an unenthusiastic, "Fine." He kept Gypsy by his side all the way to the bathrooms, however, and stayed right outside the entrance like some sort of pudgy body guard as Suzi led the girl into the bathroom. She breathed a little better once the door was closed behind them.

Suzi paused for a moment, trying to survey Gypsy without making the girl feel uncomfortable. She really was a mess. There was drying nacho toppings smeared over her face and shirt, and now instead of just her hair's regular curly tangles, it was full of sticky knots.

"Alright…" Suzi said slowly. "Where should we start?"

Gypsy didn't even answer her, just staring dejectedly at the floor.

"Right," Suzi muttered under her breath. She got several paper towels from the dispensers and wet down a few in the sink.

"Look, Gypsy," she said quietly, tentatively dabbing at a patch of cheese on her face. The girl at least held still for her. "I never, _ever_ meant to hurt you. I really want you to know that." Suzi paused, giving Gypsy a chance to respond, but the blonde only glanced at her a bit. She looked...on edge. Like she was willing to bolt back to Christopher at the slightest of mean looks. Suzi tried to swallow the feeling of guilt that had stayed with her ever since the fiasco in the hallway.

"What Savannah said about...the dare. That bit was true," she admitted. "But it wasn't anywhere near as terrible as she made it sound in front of you guys." Suzi concentrated on untangling several strands of sticky curls, not looking at Gypsy's face. "It was all supposed to be harmless. She told me she didn't think you guys would even want to be friends with anyone, and dared me to try. So...I did. I had no idea it was supposed to be about—" She paused, stopping herself. "I didn't know they were planning that," she said, her voice low. "I honestly just thought I'd start talking to you guys, maybe hang out a little. I never really expected it to...well...take off."

She finally looked back up at Gypsy, and the girl looked up herself at her movement. "I never lied about any of the things I said to you. I was being me the whole time. I promise you, I never had any bad intentions."

Gypsy glanced between Suzi and her fiddling hands in her lap several times. At first Suzi thought she wasn't going to say anything, but then she spoke up after a minute.

"I really like making friends," she said, her voice quiet and small. "But no one but Indy has ever really...liked me." She ducked her head so her hair fell over her face. "A-and I...don't know why."

Gypsy looked back up at her, a wet streak trailing a path down her cheek. "I really liked you. Indy...never really did, b-but I thought I could prove him wrong for once...and now…" Gypsy sniffled, and she rubbed a hand under her running nose. "Maybe I should just listen to him," she said quietly.

"Gypsy…" Suzi gave a small sigh. "What can I do to help you trust me again?"

Gypsy looked down at her lap. "Shrug," she mumbled.

"Okay…" Suzi pressed her lips together. "Well, uh, let's try washing your hair out and then I'll see if I can't find you some extra clothes."

Suzi barely had time to turn on the sink before there was a knock at the door. She furrowed her brows, giving it a weird look.

"That's probably Indy," Gypsy said quickly. She darted over to the door, and Suzi glanced at the ceiling before following her more slowly. Gyp pushed the door open a bit and Christopher poked his head in.

"Delivery." He held up a pile of clothes, most of which looked like they were covered in paint.

Gypsy seemed to brighten a bit. "Are those my art clothes?"

"Went and got 'em," he confirmed. Gypsy started to pull the kid through the door, but Suzi stopped both of them.

"Woah now. Still the girl's bathroom." Suzi gave him a bit of a look before taking the clothes. "Thank you, Christopher. Bye now." She shut the door again.

Gypsy gave her the look of a lost puppy after she closed the door. "Why couldn't he just come in for a minute?"

Suzi held another sigh back. "Aside from this being the girl's bathroom and the possibility of another girl coming in here at any time…" She trailed off, not even bothering to finish, and instead led the girl back over to the running sink. "Look, Gypsy." She ran one of the girl's sticky golden locks under the water and scrubbed at it a bit. "I think you need to have more than just one person to...stick up for you now and then. Indy's great with that, I know, but isn't it nice to have more people that have your back, especially when Indy can't always be there?"

Gypsy stuck the tip of her thumb in her mouth, looking up at Suzi as she seemed to think for several moments. "You mean like...when Ty is trying to throw Indy in the dumpster?"

Suzi smiled a little bit. "Yeah. Kinda like then."

Gypsy glanced back down a bit. "Yeah...I guess so…"

"Hey," Suzi said, her voice a bit softer. "I know things got messed up. I know I _helped_ mess them up. At this point, all I'm asking for is a second chance. After that, you can kick me to the curb if you like. Okay?"

Her thumb still in her mouth, Gypsy sucked at the end of it for several long moments. Then she slowly nodded. The girl hesitated for a moment, then pulled her thumb away. "Do you...like swimming?"

Suzi cracked a smile. "You could say I'm in the water a lot."

Gypsy's smile, though nervous, appeared again briefly. "Indy and I are taking scuba lessons. Maybe...maybe you could come with us some time?"

Suzi smiled back at her. "That sounds like fun."

Both the girls turned their heads when the door opened again. Indy poked his head inside once again.

"Do I get a say in this?"

Suzi opened her mouth to give a bit of a sarcastic response, but she decided against it at the last moment and looked to Gypsy instead.

Gypsy looked between her and Christopher for a moment. Her wide hazel gaze stopped on Christopher and gave him a bit of a grin. "Seeing good _does_ work eventually, Indy."

Christopher looked confused for a moment. Then he frowned. He looked at Suzi with an expression that clearly told her he still wasn't convinced, but he held it for only a moment before shutting the door again.

Suzi was in the middle of giving the door a pursed look when her musing towards Christopher gave way to surprise at Gypsy suddenly grabbing her hand.

"He'll give you a second chance eventually," the girl said, the sparkle finally back in her eyes.

"I'm not sure I ever got a first chance," Suzi replied dryly.

"Don't worry. I always manage to make my friends into Indy's friends."

Suzi look down at her hand, which Gypsy was still holding. "So we're friends then?"

She was surprised once again when the blonde up and hugged her. "We're friends."

* * *

There was silence in the room for several long moments.

"So...why are you two friends again?"

"Because Gyp is bad at telling stories."

Suzi leaned over Daquiri to whack Christopher in the back of the head, which was coupled with Gypsy elbowing him in the stomach.

"I plead abuse, I want out of these friendships," Christopher announced after huffing from the blows.

"The story explained nothing, so I'm not sure there are actual friendships to get out of," Daquiri half muttered.

"Basically all _you_ need to know, Ri," Suzi said while throwing her arm around Daquiri, which she gave the Latina a bit of a dirty look for, "is that Indy and I still hate each other. We're just used to each other now and don't let anyone else hate the other."

"Exclusive hating rights," Christopher chipped in.

Daquiri looked to Gypsy with a slightly raised eyebrow. The girl gave her a rather pouty huff. "They actually do like each other," she mumbled, crossing her arms.

"Nope. We don't."

"I actually look forward to hating her."

Gypsy put Christopher in a headlock, which looked more like she was trying to choke him to death via hugging his neck, and Suzi laughingly cheered her on.

After uncomfortably sitting through several moments of it, Daquiri stood up a bit abruptly. "Uh, I should go."

Gypsy immediately abandoned attacking her friend and scrambled to her feet. "Aw, you have to leave now? Don't you want to stay for dinner?"

Daquiri offered her a half-smile. "My dad will want me home for dinner." She glanced towards the door. "He's not really...in the habit of me being gone longer."

"But you'll stay longer another time, right?" Gypsy insisted.

Daquiri forced herself to keep up her smile. "We'll have to see."

She let out a slight startled noise when Gypsy suddenly hugged her. "I'll see you tomorrow then!"

Daquiri was frozen still for a moment, unsure of how to react, but she awkwardly, and very haltingly, hugged the girl back. "See you."

Even quicker than Gypsy had attached herself to Daquiri, however, the girl jerked away from her. "Ax!" she shouted. "Give me my book back!"

A bewildered look on her face, Daquiri turned around as Gypsy tore past her, running after her brother, who had apparently appeared again. Suzi and Christopher started cracking up again over on the couch. With everyone distracted, though, Daquiri managed to make her way to the door unnoticed. It was a bit of a relief.

Her dad hadn't been the only reason she'd wanted to leave early. She may have been there, but she wasn't really _there_ —the three friends' dynamic was rather set in stone. Gypsy may have been more than welcoming, but…

Daquiri glanced back at Suzi and Christopher laughing on the couch together before she turned and closed the door all the way. She leaned against it with a sigh.

She needed to rethink trying to make these friendships work. She was kidding herself if she thought she could just suddenly work her way into their dynamic. Suzi had made it clear from the beginning that she didn't like her, and Christopher...she really didn't know what to make of Christopher. He didn't seem to think much of her, either.

Gypsy had been the only one to really seek her out as a friend. Daquiri had recognized the need to have someone else to help with this whole mermaid thing—but that didn't mean she needed a whole group of people.

At this point, she needed to quit while she was ahead.

* * *

 **A/N:** And that's it for this chapter! Hopefully I can get the next one up on time, if not sooner, though I _am_ back in school now, so... But I can promise it won't be another 3 months gap! (Or however long it's been). Thanks for reading, and please leave reviews!


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N:**...I'm back? It's been this seven-month unplanned hiatus but I'm back? Hi. Yeah. School was a thing. And also writer's block because it sucked writing this chapter. Though it actually came out okay in the end, so I guess it's okay? But guys, guys, I have like, both of the chapters after this nearly completely written. And some other chapter after those written quite a bit. So it's not like I've been doing nothing. Anyways yeah, I'm gonna shut up and let you read.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 10| FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS**

"What the hell, Gypsy?" Daquiri snapped the moment the both of them surfaced. "I _told_ you we shouldn't come out h—"

"There's Indy's boat!" Gypsy said excitedly.

Gypsy had asked Daquiri to go out swimming with her about an hour ago, but when she had agreed to the invitation the redhead hadn't been anticipating the majority of it to be trying to convince the other girl that spying on Christopher, even if just "from a distance," was _not_ a good idea.

Daquiri ducked lower in the water at Gypsy's exclamation. She looked where Gypsy was facing, and the rainbow-painted boat floating in the water was unmistakable. It was apparent Christopher himself was not in it, however.

Daquiri grabbed onto the blonde mermaid's arm. "Gypsy, we need to leave _now_."

"You know what _I_ think would be cool," Gypsy insisted, apparently ignoring her urgency. "If we sneak up on Indy and _totally_ freak him out by being mermaids. It would be hilarious."

"If you weren't you, I'd think you were on something," Daquiri grumbled to herself. She let out a sigh and raised her voice back to a normal tone. "Gypsy, do you know _why_ we can't tell Christopher?"

Gypsy got a rather stubborn frown on her face. "No. There's no reason not to, he's been my _best friend_ since forever and I think he should know!"

Daquiri let out a slow breath through her nose. "Gypsy, us being mermaids and having these powers is a _really_ strange thing. Sure it's cool, but it would also be pretty freaky for some people. And there's the serious chance that all of this _would_ freak Christopher out. And not in a good way. And we don't want to take that risk."

"But he _wouldn't_ freak out," Gypsy insisted.

"Gypsy, this is the same kid that flipped out and fell off a dock when I just said hello," she said flatly. "I'm not sure we're talking about the same person here."

"You just startled him—that's the funny freaking out."

Slowly shaking her head, Daquiri reached for Gypsy's wrist. "Gyp, we're going to go back and—"

Moving her hand away, Gypsy swam backward a foot, giving Daquiri a look that had to be the closest she'd ever seen to Gypsy being rebellious. "I just want to watch him," she said, her voice stubborn. Then she ducked back under the water.

Daquiri slapped the water with a hand in frustration. They were going to be screwed. She dived down after the other mermaid.

* * *

At least the wreck Ax had sent him to was interesting.

Christopher shuffled back and forth in the water, trying to work with the finicky focus of the camera to take the shot. The surrounding water worked like an extra lens, making the light travel differently for the shot. It mostly meant you had to be a lot closer to the target for a clear picture.

After he snapped the picture, Christopher looked over the wreck again.

He bent down and scooped up a couple of very corroded disks, probably some very waterlogged coins. But since the wreck itself was fairly modern, he doubted they'd be worth anything. A dollar, tops. If nothing else, he could at least sarcastically present them to Ax.

He grunted to himself as he tucked away the wafers.

As cheering as finding material to mouth off to Ax with was, he wasn't feeling very into today's dive. Not to say he was tired of diving and exploring wrecks and the ocean in general; it was just that it wasn't quite as fun finding new things without someone to show it to. Sure, he could just show them the pictures and souvenirs later, but it wasn't quite the same as pointing it out to a companion.

Gypsy used to go with him on just about every trip he suggested (though if he did want to go alone, he could just say he was going fishing. Gyp despised the patience required for fishing.), but now both of the girls had been making excuses after excuses to avoid it. Maybe they were bored of it? Wouldn't they just say so? He planned the outings pretty rigorously to balance sights and safety, and he usually just picked places he was interested in, but he could try switching to a different plan if they wanted something else. Maybe find something else they'd be interested in and work around that?

He'd try to bring it up next time, but for now Christopher shook himself and tried to pay attention to the waters around him again. There were a lot more productive things to do than bemoaning his friends' absences.

As he continued on to look for some more interesting shots, though, he found he was a lot less dedicated to refocusing than he'd hoped. His mind started to wander again, going back to old memories of diving with the girls.

Christopher was jerked back to his surroundings when he caught a movement out of the corner of his vision. He tried to spot it, but he hadn't gotten a good enough track of where it went. He shifted, trying to decide if it was worth pursuing. He changed positions to where he might see it pop up again, readying his camera.

Nothing happened for long enough that he almost gave up on it, but suddenly there was a glimmer of green and he quickly snapped a picture mostly on reflex. He checked the preview screen and frowned. Naturally, it was extremely out of focus and rather blurry, as it was moving quickly and was much too far to have proper focus. He let out a breath and examined his surroundings again.

He probably wasn't going to be seeing whatever it was again anytime soon.

He might be able to set up some cameras around the area and catch a better image of it that way.

Christopher frowned at the wreck in front of him.

If he wasn't distracted before, he certainly was now.

He supposed he might as well finish what he was trying to do before calling it quits.

* * *

"That was _way_ too close," Daquiri said as she and Gypsy pulled themselves onto the ledge of the Moonpool. She let out a breath before looking over at the blonde. "Please _never_ do that again, Gyp."

Daquiri was mainly expecting the mermaid to start pouting again and make some comment on how it would have been _better_ if Christopher had seen them, but, to her confusion, Gypsy was suddenly all smiles.

The redhead furrowed her brow a bit, glancing around to make sure Christopher hadn't secretly followed them or something. When she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, she looked to the grinning girl again. "What?"

"You called me 'Gyp'!" Gypsy supplied happily, her eyes bright with excitement.

Daquiri gave the girl a bit of a weird look. "Oh-kay…?" she said slowly. "So do Suzi and Christopher?"

"Exactly!" Gypsy agreed. "And they're my friends! Only my friends call me Gyp!"

Daquiri gave the girl a bit of a bemused look. "You sure have a weird idea of what friendship is, Gypsy," she said, shaking her head a little. But she had a small smile on her face.

"Well, what do _you_ think friendship is, then?"

Daquiri was a bit taken off guard by the question. Frowning, she looked down at the rippling pool. "I don't know." She shrugged a little as she smoothed her fingers over the scales of her tail. "It's been a long time since I made friends."

Gypsy frowned. "You mean you didn't have friends from back home?"

She didn't answer right away. "Not really."

"Why not?!"

"I don't know," Daquiri said again, stalling. "I just...wasn't really interested, I guess."

"But you said you _used_ to have friends, didn't you?"

Daquiri hesitated. "Well, yeah," she admitted. "But not really friends. I didn't hang out with that many people."

"What happened?"

As much as Daquiri continued to try to avoid the subject, Gypsy was relentless. She released a long sigh. "He moved away. I didn't get to see him anymore."

"You didn't make other friends after that?"

Daquiri shifted slightly, getting more and more uncomfortable with the territory of this conversation. "No, not really." She kept her gaze away from Gypsy. "It just wasn't that important to me after," she said, trying to make her voice firmer in a way that would hopefully end the conversation.

Gypsy was quiet for several moments. "So...do you actually...not want to be friends then?"

Daquiri felt a bit exasperated at this next turn, but she also found that her mind almost immediately jumped to wanting to make sure she didn't hurt Gypsy's feelings. Which took her off guard almost as much as Gypsy's original question had.

"No, Gypsy, I do like you, and I want to be friends," Daquiri assured the girl. "And I wouldn't say that if I didn't mean it. Believe me." She smiled a bit at the girl. "But being a friend just… isn't something I'm very good at anymore."

Gypsy gained a thoughtful expression. "Well… what makes you consider me a friend?" She elbowed Daquiri gently. "And don't say 'I don't know'."

Daquiri rolled her eyes a bit, but she glanced over at Gypsy. "I don't—" She stopped herself. "Um, well…You…" She looked at the pool, not really seeing it. "I know you're real." She ducked her head a bit. "If…that makes sense," she said, her voice doubtful. "You just—you never…do anything you don't mean." Daquiri looked her in the eyes. "I can always tell what you're about." She looked away again, smiling a little. "You remind me of my brother, actually."

Gypsy leaned towards her on her hands. "Arak?"

That made Daquiri snort a bit. "No, my little brother—Fox."

Gypsy cocked her head. "You have a brother named Fox?"

That made Daquiri actually laugh a little bit. "It's a nickname. His name is Jamie, we just never call him that anymore."

"Why do you call him Fox?"

Daquiri pursed her lips. "Kind of a long story."

Gypsy scooted closer to her on the ledge. "I don't have anywhere to be."

Daquiri gave her a flat look but relented. "It mostly came from a long string of family inside jokes, but started from a comment someone made when he was still a baby. It just kind of stuck." She gave the blonde a sideways glance. "He looks a lot like me, if that helps."

"Who does Arak look like?"

Daquiri pressed her tongue against the inside of her teeth for a moment. "Our dad." She didn't particularly want to wait for the follow-up question. She pulled herself the rest of the way out of the water. "Well, we should probably go now." Her top half was dry by now, but she began to heat the water off the end of her tail. "Do you want a steam-dry too?"

"Ooh, actually, I learned this thing!"

Daquiri watched as Gypsy got the rest of the way out as well and laid out her tail in front of her. She raised her hand over it.

Daquiri didn't see anything happening at first, but then she spotted droplets of water starting to run up the girl's tail, starting to pool on the top. Her brow furrowed, curious. Soon the droplets had formed one big puddle, and Daquiri watched as it slowly lifted off of Gypsy's scales and molded into a floating orb. The moment the last bit floated into the shape, Gyp's tail transformed back into her paint-splattered overall shorts and legs. Gypsy stood up before tossing the ball of water into the Moonpool.

The girl looked at Daquiri with a grin. "Cool, huh?"

The redhead stared at her. "Gypsy, that's amazing." She remembered her own tail and finished drying it off so she could stand up. "You figured out how to do that all yourself?"

Gyp's grin only got wider. "Sometimes I spend a lot of time locked in the bathroom."

Daquiri smiled a little. "I guess Suzi's the only one that didn't get so lucky in the drying department now, huh?"

Gypsy giggled into her hand. "I guess that means we can't leave her alone now."

Daquiri's smile wavered. "Um, Gypsy," she said carefully, "about...Suzi…"

The girl looked at her expectantly.

Daquiri hesitated. "Um…well, I was just realizing the other day...I mean, I'd already sort of known, but at your house, I…"

"Did you have fun?" Gypsy interjected, sounding excited. "Do you want to come over again? Sue and Indy were gonna come over to start a movie marathon tomorrow and you could—"

"I know they don't like me," Daquiri blurted out. She looked away slightly. "I mean, Suzi already made it very clear to me, and Christopher—well, I don't even really need to _guess_ with Christopher..." She trailed off, thinking back to that unfortunate night on Hawthorne's during the full moon.

"Of course they like you!" Gypsy exclaimed, grabbing Daquiri's hand. "I mean, I know Sue can be...well, kind of mean—and Indy, I know he'll like you, he just...well, he kinda awkwards out around people he doesn't know very well, but that doesn't mean he doesn't _like_ you, he just kinda takes forever. I mean, you know how long it took him with _Suzi_ , and he—"

"Gypsy," Daquiri interrupted, her voice low. "You don't have to." She slipped her hand out of Gypsy's grasp. "I already told you making friends isn't exactly easy for me. I'm glad to be your friend, I really am—but if Christopher and Suzi don't want me around, I'm not really in any place to try to make it work with them." She pulled back her lips in a sort of straight-lined, not-really-trying smile. "I'm sorry. I'll see you later."

With that, she disappeared into the cave tunnels.

* * *

The next day at school, Gypsy found that Ri didn't exactly avoid her—she was at least glad for that, art was always 110% better when Ri talked to her—but she did have to flag the redhead down at lunch when she saw the girl wasn't heading for their usual table.

"Ri!" Gypsy called, slightly breathless from trying to run without spilling her lunch tray while also dodging through the crowd to get to her friend.

Total score that she could call Ri-Marie that for sure now— _her_ _friend_. Fist pump.

Ri turned her head at Gypsy's voice and she slowed down her pace a bit, but she kept walking in her direction towards the courtyard. "Hey, Gyp."

"Hey!" Gypsy returned brightly. "Are you gonna sit with us today?"

Ri glanced over her shoulder back at their table. She sort of pressed her lips together a little. "I was just going to sit alone today."

"Why not come sit with us?" Gypsy pressed. "Indy and Sue don't care, they're used to you sitting there now!"

Ri smiled a little, but she didn't really look all that happy. "They're used to acting normal _while_ I sit there now, Gyp. I just make it more awkward than it has to be." She shrugged. "I don't mind sitting by myself. I'm used to it." Ri seemed to try to make her smile a little bigger. "Go ahead and sit with Christopher and Suzi. I'll see you later."

Gypsy stopped and frowned as Ri walked off without her. Turning back around, she decidedly decided to make a decision. That was how decided she was. She made her way back to her and friends' table.

"Hey, Gyp," Suzi greeted, looking like she'd just got done laughing at something Indy had said. "Where was Ri going? Was she not gonna sit with us?"

Gypsy frowned a bit at her friends. "She said she didn't want to sit over here."

Suzi raised a slight eyebrow at that. "Is something wrong?"

Gypsy threw out her hands a little. "She thinks you guys don't like her!"

Suzi exchanged a small look with Christopher. "I mean, we still barely know her."

"So you're saying it's true?" she demanded.

The Latina's mouth pinched a little. "I can't say she's my _favorite_ person."

Gypsy turned to her other friend. "Indy?" she asked him, searching his face.

He hesitated for a moment or two. Then he just shrugged.

"Guys!" Gypsy whined. "Ri is _new_ to school! She doesn't have any other friends! Don't you remember what that's like?"

"I, for one, have always had friends," Suzi said matter-of-factly while Indy mumbled something about having never moved before.

"Okay, fine," Gypsy huffed, giving her foot a small stamp, "but _I_ know what it's like. And you have to give people a chance to get to know them!"

"We have been giving her a chance," Suzi said dryly. "She's the one who's not sitting with us."

Gypsy gave her friend a frustrated look. Why did she have to be so...so... _gahhhh_ all the time?

"Well, there's three of us," she said, frowning at the two of them, "and only one of her. So I'm going to go find Ri."

Turning on her heel, she marched back out to the courtyard.

* * *

"Hi again."

Ri looked up at her in surprise as Gypsy plopped down next to her on the grass. "Do you ever just want to...to... _yell_ sometimes? Agh." Gypsy scrunched up her face in a pout. "They can be so _aggravating_ sometimes."

Ri made one of her teeny-tiny smiles. "I know the feeling."

"I mean, they're like, one-hundred-percent awesome all the time usually, but sometimes they just _do_ things that are just... _gahhh._ " Gypsy waved her hands around wildly. "You know?" She collapsed backwards onto the grass. She glanced at Ri. "Oh, were you reading?"

Ri glanced down at the open book in her hands. "I wasn't really expecting a conversation."

"Oops," Gypsy said, feeling slightly sheepish. She propped herself up on her elbows. "I didn't want you to have to be alone, though."

Ri gave her a bit of a strange look. "You just left Suzi and Christopher by themselves?"

Gypsy waved a hand airily. "They're fine. They'll probably spend the entirety of lunch insulting everyone in the cafeteria or something." She grinned. "They don't always admit that they can have fun without me, but they totally can."

"I'm sure." Ri still had what looked to be a bit of a bemused expression on her face, but she blinked it away after a moment. "Thanks."

Ri may not have had a whole lot of facial expressions like Sue and Indy always did, but Gypsy knew she had made the girl happy. Or at least...whatever the equivalent of happy was for Ri.

She just knew.

"What's cracking, ladies?"

The familiar flutter almost immediately exploded in her stomach at hearing the voice she knew so well by now. She practically shot back into a normal sitting position. "Kalen!" she exclaimed. She belatedly realized that probably sounded too...eager. She paused. "Uh, hey," she said, trying to sound more nonchalant like Sue always did.

Ri didn't seem nearly as happy to see the tall sophomore boy.

"Go away, Kalen," Daquiri said with a scowl.

Gypsy immediately let out something that was somewhere between a laugh and a giggle. She was trying to think of something to say, maybe sound like she was joking along with Ri, but her mind came up blank. Her laughter nervously tapered off, and she felt rather dumb.

Kalen smiled at her, though. Gypsy's insides lifted.

"What are you two up to?" he asked, his tone easy as he slipped his hands into his jean pockets, thumbs sticking out.

"Trying to have a conversation that you were not a part of," Ri said, her voice dry.

"But it's totally fine if you join," Gypsy quickly added. Ri looked again like she was going to protest Kalen being there for some reason, and Gypsy immediately hooked pinkies with her. When the redhead looked over at her with a bit of a confused frown, Gypsy widened her eyes at her, pleading.

If looks could be slow, that's how Ri's was. It was a lot of long moments before her expression relented to a kind of disgruntled compliance and she looked away. She just really must have not liked talking to people she didn't know.

Gypsy, however, was nearly beaming when Kalen settled himself down in front of them on the grass. She tried to sit still, but she was so excited it was hard not to fidget.

Kalen was sitting next to her!

This was the officially the best day of her life.

"So you two are hanging out now, huh?" Kalen asked. Or maybe it was more of a comment, Gypsy wasn't entirely sure.

She was about to happily reply, especially in lieu of recent events, but this time Ri actually beat her to it.

"That's not exactly news," the redhead said, her voice continuously dry and flat. "You've seen us hanging out several times already." She turned her head to the side a bit after that, and Gypsy heard her last muttered comment probably only because she was used to Indy's low tones: "And it's not like it's any of your business anyway."

"It is newer now though," Gypsy chipped in. She nudged Ri playfully. "She doesn't make friends with _everyone_ , after all." Gypsy beamed proudly. "I'm just special."

Kalen's intent gaze turned to her, nearly making Gypsy blush. His mouth tugged into a half smile. "Oh, really? And how come you got so lucky?"

"Because she's not an asshole," Daquiri muttered way under her breath.

Gypsy broke out into more nervous laughter, despite that Kalen probably hadn't heard what Ri had said. Gypsy glanced over at her, but Ri was frowning off at something in the distance. Gypsy wasn't sure what she was looking at.

Looking back to Kalen, Gypsy remembered he hadn't actually heard Ri's comment and still hadn't gotten an answer. "Um," she started, letting out an anxious giggle when his attention turned to her, "I guess I just managed to follow her around and bother her enough."

Kalen tilted his head back and laughed. "So you mean all I have to do is keep bugging her until she likes me?"

Ri elbowed Gypsy hard all of a sudden. Gypsy looked at her with a confused frown to see Ri glaring at her with wide eyes. Disconcerted, Gypsy mouthed a small ' _What?_ ' at her.

The redhead gave a sharp, not-very-quiet sigh and rolled her eyes away. Suddenly very unsure of herself, Gypsy stuck the tip of a thumb in her mouth and bit down.

Instead of finding it awkward, though, Kalen chuckled softly. "Guess I'm still not there." He smiled his warm brown eyes at Gypsy. "I don't have to worry about that with you now, though, do I?"

Gypsy stared back at him, her brain turning to mush. "…What?"

Kalen laughed. "I just meant you're so friendly. I don't think I know anyone that isn't friends with you or at least _likes_ you."

Gypsy blinked, wide-eyed. "Really?"

"Yeah." Kalen kept his gaze locked on hers, and Gypsy couldn't look away. "I'm surprised I haven't talked to you more, honestly."

"Y-you wanna talk to _me?_ " Gypsy spluttered.

"Gypsy," Ri interrupted, "we should go. Lunch is almost over and you've hardly eaten anything." Her friend sounded impatient, but Gypsy was hesitant to leave. More than hesitant, she _didn't_ want to leave—this never happened! When would she get the chance to talk to Kalen again?

Gypsy's mouth drew itself into a small bow off to the side. "Can't we stay just...a few more minutes?"

Ri gave a huff and stood up, having already gathered her things. "I'm leaving now."

Gypsy wavered. She'd come out here to spend time with Ri so she wouldn't be alone; she didn't want to just ignore her for Kalen. But...what if this never happened again?

Unsure, she glanced at Kalen.

"Hey, if you need to go, that's fine," Kalen said with a shrug and a smile. "I'm sure we'll get a chance to talk some other time."

Gypsy slowly got up. "Some time...soon?"

Kalen laughed. "Tell you what—why don't you give me your number? Maybe we can hang out sometime."

Gypsy's mouth opened, but nothing came out. She let out a squeak, her eyes wide.

Gypsy was slightly broken out of her shock when Ri suddenly stepped back up next to her.

"Gypsy isn't in the habit of handing out her number to random boys," the redhead interjected, her tone sounding rather hostile.

"Kalen isn't random," she said quickly. She dug her phone out of her back pocket and shyly handed it to Kalen.

"I'll just program in my number and text myself. Cool?"

"Cool," Gypsy echoed.

She could hardly contain herself while she waited, and she had to bite her tongue when Kalen gave her phone back to her with a smile.

"See you around then," Kalen said, lifting his hand in farewell as he walked back off. Gypsy nearly forgot to wave back as he left.

She stayed frozen in place as she watched Kalen until he was out of earshot. Then she practically tackled Ri. "Did you see that? Did that just happen? That just happened! _Kalen asked for my number._ He _asked_ for _my_ number. Did you _see_ that?!"

Ri looked after where the boy had left as well. "I can't say I really _know_ him, Gyp, but…" The redhead's gaze switched back to her. "I can say you have to be careful around any guy. Most guys are jerks."

"Indy's not," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well." Ri glanced away again. "I said most."

"Kalen's not, either," Gypsy insisted. "I've known him for like, _ever_."

"Just...be careful," her friend said slowly. She pulled out her own phone then and checked the time. "C'mon, lunch is practically over."

"I can't wait to tell Indy!" Gypsy bubbled excitedly as she bounced after Ri back inside the school.

* * *

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'," Gypsy said in a hushed tone, making a face while trying not to alert the teacher's attention at the front of the room. She bopped Indy on the nose. "That doesn't even make sense to what I told you!"

"Sure it does," Indy said with a slight shrug. "It means, 'no, Kalen is not allowed to ask for your number.'"

"It still wasn't a logical following of _words_ ," Gypsy insisted, sticking her nose in the air. " _Besiiiides_ , you're supposed to be happy for me!" She poked him in the side.

"I'm never happy."

"You're supposed to _pretend_ to be happy, then."

"I think that goes against the definition of 'never happy.'"

" _Indy_ ," she whined louder than she meant to, while impulsively grabbing his arm and tugging him nearly halfway out of his seat.

"Gypsy!" A sharp voice from the front of the classroom rang out.

Her cheeks immediately turning pink, Gypsy froze. She slowly turned her head to peek a look at their teacher, who was giving her a stern and slightly annoyed look. She shrank back slightly upon noticing everyone in the class was staring at them.

"Unless you'd like to give this lecture explaining the French Revolution for me, I'd suggest staying in your seat and leaving your _classmates_ in their seats, as well," the teacher said, her already stern voice chilling to a cooler tone.

Gypsy tried to make herself as small as possible in her chair. "Yes, Mrs. Kelm," she said meekly amongst a smattering of snickers from the other kids throughout the classroom.

The end of her pencil found its way into her mouth and she'd nearly gnawed the entire eraser off by the time the teacher turned back to the board and all the students had stopped paying attention to her. She tried to focus her attention on what Mrs. Kelm was saying, but Indy leaning towards her slightly caught her attention.

"Rude of her. We were having a conversation. If she let _me_ teach, someone might actually learn something." No one else would've been able to hear his quiet mutterings, but Gypsy bit down harder on her pencil, this time because she was trying not to laugh. Smiling, she looked down at her paper to see if her notes made any sense.

She didn't even realize she was gnawing the rest of the way down her purple wooden pencil until Indy nudged her foot with his own. She looked over at him again.

He wordlessly and covertly passed her a plastic baggie of pretzel sticks. She sent him a grateful glance. Stashing the baggie in her lap, she started chowing down on the snack as quietly as possible.

"Did you even eat lunch?" Indy muttered to her, looking forward and somehow still managing to take notes on what Mrs. Kelm was saying.

"I sorta…forgot," she admitted, a bit sheepishly. She glanced at him. "How could you tell?"

"You only ever start eating your pencil when you're starving," he said under his breath as he scribbled several things down in his notebook.

Gypsy peeked inside her pencil bag, where the majority of visible pencils had some form of chew marks on them. She frowned a bit.

Indy caught her eye, glanced at her pouch, and then gave her a slightly amused look. "Or when you're incredibly bored," he amended quietly.

Splaying an arm out across her desk, Gypsy let her head fall down on it. She gave Indy a scrunched-up-face look. "Speaking of which," she half mumbled, half whined.

She saw Indy give a small smirk. "Just twenty-seven more minutes," he said quietly.

"Can I go to sleep and copy your notes later," she grumbled, shoving a handful of pretzels into her mouth.

"But then you'd never hear about the thrilling hobby of guillotining," he said, his voice lightly joking even in his low undertones.

She frowned at him. "Guillo-what-ing?"

Indy gave a light snort. "Have you been paying attention at all?"

Gypsy wrinkled her nose. "No. Who cares about the French?"

Her friend looked only slightly amused in response to that comment. "It _is_ world history. It's supposed to help you be a bit more…cultured."

"Why do I need to be _more_ cultured? One of my best friends is Puerto Rican and can cuss people out in fluent _Espanol_." Gypsy stuck out her tongue. "That's cultured enough for me."

"Well I don't think there's going to be Spanish cuss words on the exam," Indy said, his voice steady and quiet as he flipped over a new page to continue his notes. "Try to pay attention for the rest of class and I'll fill you in on the rest of the notes after school."

Rolling her eyes, Gypsy stuffed a handful of pretzels into her mouth as she looked back to her notes with a bored look.

"Gypsy."

Gypsy looked up at Mrs. Kelm's voice, forgetting her mouth was full until she saw the teacher's sour look. She tried to swallow, but the majority of the snack still hadn't been chewed.

"You know the rule about eating in this class." The woman walked over to her desk and began writing something down. "And you also know full well what a second warning from me means." Mrs. Kelm ripped the pink piece of paper off the pad and set it down. "You can pick up your detention slip at the end of class."

Gypsy slid down in her seat at the several quiet "oohs" from various kids in the class. "Yes, Mrs. Kelm," she mumbled around her mouthful. She swallowed.

Indy sent her a sympathetic look, but didn't say anything. After a moment, his eyes trailed back to his notebook.

With a muted sigh, she despondently popped another pretzel into her mouth. Wasn't like she could get into any _more_ trouble.

* * *

"He's going to do _what?_ "

Daquiri set down her mug of tea on the café table, staring in disbelief at Suzi, who was standing with her arms crossed on the other side of the table and a face that looked none too happy.

"He's going to put up _video cameras_ ," Suzi said through her teeth. "Thanks to _you and Gypsy_."

Daquiri's mouth opened, but nothing came out. She closed it again. Looking down at her mug, she slowly wrapped the teabag string around her index finger until the tip turned red. "I _tried_ to keep Gypsy away from him while he was diving. She wouldn't listen to me and…swam up to the wreck he was looking at. I was trying to stop her."

"Yeah, well, maybe there's a _reason_ she didn't listen to you." Suzi barely had the decency to lower her voice at all, and it was still very clearly audible to Daquiri.

The redhead glared at her. She opened her mouth to speak, but then decided against it and just looked away. She closed her eyes for a moment. "What kind of picture did he even get," she asked, her voice quiet.

Digging into the back pocket of her shorts, Suzi made several swipes through her phone before almost aggressively shoving the device into Daquiri's face. "See for yourself," the Latina practically growled.

Carefully taking the phone, Daquiri cupped her hand around the screen to see better. It was a picture of a printed photograph, one that Suzi must have taken when Christopher showed the pictures to her at lunch. It was a bit out of focus, but very similar to the picture he'd gotten of Daquiri's own tail several weeks ago. Except this one showed almost the entire tail.

"That's bad," Daquiri said softly.

"Uh, _yeah_ ," Suzi snapped. "And now he's putting up _underwater cameras._ _Video_ cameras, Ri! Do you know just _how_ bad that is?"

"Calm down," Daquiri muttered. "Or at least _quiet_ down. We're in the middle of a café."

With a huff, Suzi scraped out a chair and dropped down into it. "Look, _Daquiri_ ," the girl hissed at her, "Gypsy might think you're the new _greatest_ thing since sliced bread, but being friends with her means you have to keep an _eye_ on her."

Daquiri frowned. "She's not a toddler."

Suzi steepled her fingers on the table. "No, she's not. She's a teenager with a lot of issues that _severely_ affect her judgement and basic daily decisions about _everything_. And that means you need to be a _filter_ for those decisions that are usually made about every two _seconds_ in her brain."

Daquiri's brow contorted into a furrow. "Issues?"

Suzi gave a heavy sigh. "Gypsy is—"

"Hey, Sue."

Both Daquiri and Suzi looked up as Christopher walked over. He gave a nod to Daquiri once he'd stopped at their table. The redhead looked back down at her tea.

"Hey, Indy," Suzi greeted, slowly leaning back in her chair. She shifted her eyes around without moving her head. "Where's Gyp?"

Daquiri caught the boy's nearly inaudible sigh, and she looked up, curious.

"Detention. She has to stay 'til four."

Suzi frowned. "Again? That's the third time this month. What did she do?"

Christopher glanced away, but Daquiri couldn't tell if he looked irritated or…guilty? "Kelm's class," was all he said.

Suzi gave a disgusted snort. "Someone needs to tell that woman to get her panties out of the knot they've been in for the last _fifteen years_."

Daquiri wrinkled her nose. "Please do not talk about teachers' panties," she muttered.

Christopher gave a small huff as he sat down at their table. "It was more my fault Kelm jumped on her," he mumbled. "I should've at least gotten detention, too."

Suzi gave a loud scoff. "Indy, you couldn't get detention if you set _fire_ to the _building_."

Christopher just gave her a look and a grunt.

"So, when are you setting up those cameras?" Suzi asked, changing the subject.

Christopher shrugged. "Sometime this week. I want to do a few tests with them first, make sure they work properly." He raised a brow. "Did you…want to help set them up?"

Suzi hesitated for a moment. "Maybe." She glanced at Daquiri. "Why don't…both of us come over and check it out now?"

Daquiri immediately frowned. "Suzi, I have to—"

"Eh!" Suzi held up her hand and pointed at the redhead. "You owe me, re-mem-ber?"

Scowling, Daquiri took a sip of her drink, looking away. "I can't stay the entire time," she muttered.

"I have to pick Gyp up from school at four anyways," Christopher said with a shrug. "You don't have to stay past then."

Daquiri gave Suzi a sidelong glance. The Latina narrowed her eyes at her. "I guess," Daquiri said after a few moments, though mostly under her breath.

Christopher checked his watch. "We'll have a little bit of time if we leave now."

"Sounds like a plan," Suzi said with a thin smile. "C'mon, Ri."

With a sigh, Daquiri took one last drink from her tea before standing up.

* * *

Gypsy was clicking her pen and swinging her feet in her usual seat in detention when someone else sat down next to her. Looking up, she nearly fell out of her chair at seeing Kalen.

"Kalen!" she squeaked. "What are you doing here?"

"Apparently the teachers here don't like it when you're late to class," Kalen said with a half-smile. "Who knew?"

Giving a bit of a nervous laugh, Gypsy looked down. She suddenly was more okay with having detention today.

"Did you draw that?"

Gypsy looked back over to see Kalen gesturing to her pen sketch. Shyly, she nodded.

"Sweet." Kalen slung her a full smile. "That's really cool."

"Thanks," she said, trying to keep the pitch of her voice from rising again. Her mind whirled, trying to think of something else to say. "Um, do you…like art?"

Kalen gave a bit of a snicker. "Well, I can't draw for crap, so I usually think it's pretty neat when other people can." He leaned an elbow against the desk, his chiseled jaw resting on his hand. "Do you just draw?"

"Uh, no, I…like painting. And sculpting." Gypsy hoped chewing on the inside of her lip wasn't noticeable to him.

"Which do you like the best?"

Gypsy paused at that. She frowned a bit, thinking. "That's kind of a hard question. I _do_ really love sculpting, but…there are so many different mediums for painting, I think that's probably what I do most."

"Yeah? Do you have any pictures?"

She blinked. "Yeah." Pulling out her phone, she went to her gallery and started swiping through photos.

Just then the teacher came back into the room, and Gypsy quickly stuffed her phone into her lap. She gave Kalen a sidelong glance. The boy made a gagging motion and Gypsy giggled quietly. The teacher began to drone on about something to do with not doing any homework during detention—the usual spiel—and Gypsy kept the corner of her eye on Kalen. When the teacher turned his back, the boy motioned to her phone. Biting her lip, and her eyes darting back and forth between the teacher and her cell, she clicked on one of her photo albums to bring up a folder of her artwork. Checking one last time to make sure the teacher wasn't looking, she passed her phone over to Kalen.

She nervously tugged at her fingers and tried not to stare at the boy as he looked through her work. What if he didn't like any of it? What if he took back what he'd said about her being good? There were a lot of people in her art class that were better than she was, including Ri… She hadn't seen much of her new friend's artwork, but what she had seen had been _amazing_. Next to her, Gypsy felt herself doubt how good she really could have been in Kalen's eyes…

When she saw Kalen messing around with her screen, she frowned a bit nervously. "What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Sending them to myself," he murmured back.

Confused, Gypsy glanced between him and the teacher. "Why?"

"They're really good. I think I could get some of them shown around, see if any'll catch a price."

Gypsy's eyes widened a bit. She relaxed a slight more at seeing the teacher finally walk back out of the room, and she leaned towards Kalen a bit more. "You think people would actually want to buy them?"

Kalen gave a bit of a shrug. "Never know until you try." He handed her phone back then. "I'll let you know if anything comes up."

"Oh." Gypsy looked down at some of the documented paintings, wondering if she'd even want to sell them. She looked back up at Kalen with a smile though, still amazed that he would even offer to do something like that. "Thanks!"

"So, hey," Kalen said, leaning back in his chair, an arm slung over the back in a lazy pose, "are you doing anything over Christmas break?"

Picking the pen back up from her desk and fiddling with it, Gypsy shook her head no, holding her breath as she wondered what Kalen was going to ask her.

"Sabrina Thrall is supposed to be throwing this huge New Year's Eve party, and it sounds like it's going to be a ton of fun. Her parents have a pretty sweet house, great for parties. You should definitely come, bring your friends or something." Kalen's mouth tilted up in a bit of a smile. "Just don't bring a date."

Gypsy bit her lip, giggling a little although she wasn't entirely sure what Kalen meant by the last comment. She thought he might be saying...but no, she was too embarrassed and unsure to actually ask. "I'll tell them," was all she said instead.

Kalen's mouth grew into a wider smile. "Sweet." Crossing his arms behind his head, he slid down in his chair so he could lean back properly. "So now we can go through my list of 'Top Twenty Ways to Make Detention More Interesting'..."

* * *

Christopher couldn't spend much time at his house with the girls before he had to leave to pick Gypsy up. They had been able to at least look over a few of his underwater camcorders, though Sue and Daquiri had merely checked the general tech parts with him. He at least understood Daquiri refusing to go in the water to test them out—she had expressly told him, several times, that she did not like the water.

But he still couldn't figure out Sue. He hadn't seen her surf for a few months now, and he was pretty sure she'd given it up altogether. And she never even went swimming anymore. The answer she gave him for why was never very committal, either. Just like with Gyp.

He hadn't really had a chance to try addressing it with her again, though, since the time to leave and pick up Gypsy rolled around pretty quick. And that was a whole other matter of thought for him, anyway. He still felt bad about getting Gyp detention, and despite what Sue said, he knew he should've been the one to get called out on by Mrs. Kelm. In the least, he could've gotten in trouble along with her. He hated having to leave her by herself like that.

He pushed the nagging feelings out of his mind as he pulled into the school parking lot, swinging around the perimeter to get to the curb outside the main entrance. He'd been expecting to have to text Gyp he was there, but her hair caught his eye and he saw she was already outside, talking to someone. He couldn't tell who the guy was until he parked by the curb and got an actual look at him.

He stiffened upon realizing it was Kalen.

Christopher swore under his breath, his knuckles turning white around the steering wheel. This. _This_ was why he did not like leaving Gypsy alone.

Getting out of the car, he roughly shut the door before making his way over to the two of them. He heard it was Kalen talking when he came up—unsurprising, considering how much the guy liked his own voice—but he didn't care to listen to whatever he was saying.

"Hey, Gyp," he cut in, not even acknowledging Kalen standing there, "we're all back at my place and can head out now, finally get you out of school." _And away from whatever jerks happen to be nearby_ , he added in a grumbling thought to himself.

"Well, hey, Indy." Kalen greeted him with one of his "boyish charm" smiles, or whatever the hell they were.

Needless to say, he didn't return the smile. "Hey," he said briefly. "C'mon, Gyp."

"Kalen and I were just talking about this New Year's Eve party Sabrina Thrall is going to be throwing over break!" Gypsy told him, her voice excited and her eyes shining.

Kalen smiled. "Yeah, I told Gyp earlier all of you should come. Sabrina's parents are gonna be gone for the weekend so it's supposed to be killer."

"Not really interested. C'mon, Gyp, or we're going to be late for our thing." He put a hand lightly to her back, not pushing but giving her at least a gentle guide away to his car.

Gypsy took a step, but she hesitated, glancing back at Kalen. "What thing?"

"That thing we have to do." He had to keep the impatience out of his voice at Kalen still standing there. "We were going to hang out today."

"Right…" Gypsy reluctantly took a few more steps in the direction of his car. "Bye, Kalen!" She waved to him over her shoulder, but then turned around completely to walk backward. "You'll text me later, right?"

Kalen laughed as he waved back. "Of course!" he called back. He gave her one last smile before turning away himself to go off to wherever jerks went after school.

 _Good riddance, Felicia_ , Christopher grumbled to himself.

Gypsy followed Christopher the rest of the way to the car, settling herself into the passenger's seat as he got in on the driver's side.

"You weren't very nice to him," Gypsy said as she buckled herself in.

"I'm not a nice person."

"That doesn't mean you have to be rude!" Gypsy retorted at him, a bit of an annoyed edge latching into her voice. "You _know_ I like him."

"Yes, the guy you hung out with in detention, I have no reason to be concerned whatsoever."

Gypsy frowned at him. "So what, being in detention makes him a bad person to hang out with?"

"Well it doesn't exactly make him _good_ to hang out with," Christopher half grumbled.

"So, what— _I'm_ not good to hang out with then?"

"What? How—" Christopher paused, startled and confused at the abrupt veer of direction in the conversation. "No? No! That's not—"

"That's what you said," Gypsy interrupted. "Kids in detention aren't good to hang out with." Christopher glanced over at her briefly, and noted the arms crossed over her chest and how she had slightly turned away from him.

He let out a sigh. "Why do you take what I say at actual face value _now_?" he half-muttered, slightly exasperated.

Taking another breath, he slowly let it out through his nose. "Kalen is the type of guy who actually belongs in and frequents detention. Unlike you, who only occasionally is there because Kelm is a b—" He caught himself, and quickly reworded. "A crappy teacher who doesn't like anyone. And even that aside, it was my fault you were in detention anyway, so you can't even validly compare yourself to Kalen."

Gypsy slouched against the back of her seat, her arms still crossed. "Just because he's late to class sometimes doesn't mean he's a bad person," she muttered.

"Yes. I'm sure that is the only thing he ever did wrong," he replied sarcastically.

Gypsy didn't reply to that, and instead left the car in a tense, annoyed silence.

Christopher couldn't take Gypsy being annoyed at him for very long.

"Did you want a smoothie before heading home?" he asked, changing the subject and breaking the silence all at once.

Gypsy finally looked over at him. She didn't reply right away, like she wanted to stay mad at him, but just as much as he couldn't let things stay sour between the two of them, Gypsy could never turn down a smoothie run.

"Can we mix all the flavors?" she ventured, sounding like she was attempting to grumble.

"You know, I think they really hate when we do that."

Gypsy frowned at him in a pout.

"Ugh, _fine_." He gave a dramatic eye-roll. When he heard a small giggle escape Gypsy, he glanced over at her and smiled.

Gyp may have been wooed by everything Kalen did, but that didn't make the guy any less of the shallow jerk that Christopher knew he was. If she kept talking to him, that part of him would show through to her eventually. And when it did, Christopher would be right there with her to slam the door in Kalen's face.

* * *

 **A/N:** All I'm going to say is: Fox is NOT his real name. So hah. Some of my characters have normal names.


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N:** I both hate and love this chapter. Ugh. Sorry these are taking so long. I can...pretty much promise the next one should take a shorter amount of time. Would it be any sort of excuse to say I just found out I probably have ADHD? Yeah. Okay.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 11| FULL MOON LUNACY**

Daquiri looked out the window, pressing her lips together. The moon would be rising by the end of the hour. She leaned on the sill, looking over her shoulder at Gypsy. "So, what do you and Suzi normally do on full moon nights?"

"Usually just hang out indoors all night and make sure we don't see the moon or touch water," Gyp said from her back bend position on the floor.

Daquiri gave a small frown. "Don't touch water?"

"Yeah." Gypsy collapsed from her bend, apparently unsuccessful from pulling herself up to her feet from the position. She laid splayed out, looking up at Daquiri. "It doesn't just turn us into mermaids during the full moon, the effect is kind of...magnified? It makes us weird like the moon does."

"Huh." Daquiri looked back out the window. "That's...unfortunate."

"Yeah." Gypsy wrinkled her nose. "We can't go skinny-dipping, and it sucks!"

Daquiri quickly turned to look at Gypsy again, her eyes widening with a questioning look.

Gypsy looked back at her curiously, cocking her head. "What? That's what Sue always says."

Daquiri narrowed her eyes. "Do you even know what skinny-dipping is?"

Gypsy shrugged on the floor carelessly. "I don't know, mermaid-swimming?"

Daquiri snorted softly. "Yes. Nailed it." She stood up. "Alright, c'mon then." She held out her hand to help Gypsy up.

Gypsy took it and pulled herself to her feet. "What are we doing?"

"We should cover all the windows or something, make sure we can't see the moon."

"Won't that look kind of weird?"

Daquiri raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Aren't your parents used to you doing...weird things?"

Gypsy shrugged. "I guess Indy and I do weird stuff sometimes."

"'Sometimes,'" Daquiri muttered under her breath.

"I heard that!"

Right. The girl was used to listening to Christopher's mute speech.

"We can tell your parents it's to watch a movie or something," Daquiri said in a louder voice, pulling the curtains over the living room bay window. "In...every room of the house."

"Oh, my parents are going out tonight!"

Daquiri made her way to the kitchen. "And Ax?"

"Oh, he's working on his boat and probably won't come by tonight. He's been pretty busy lately."

Daquiri drew the kitchen curtains shut with one swift motion. "Perfect."

* * *

Half panicked and not knowing what else to do, Daquiri hit the call button on her phone, trying to keep the ringing device to her ear while also guarding the sink from Gypsy—which was rather difficult when _she_ was the shorter one.

" _...Hello?_ "

"Gypsy, _no_ —Sue?"

" _Daquiri?_ "

"Yeah, it's me," Daquiri said hastily. "Can you please—Gypsy!—come over? The moon, it—I don't even know, Gypsy saw its _reflection_ and—GYPSY!"

Daquiri's voice came out a bit shriekier than she would have liked when Gypsy managed to manipulate the water out of the sink and _all over her_. Daquiri looked down at herself hopelessly as Gypsy giggled next to her. She swore quietly.

She let out a sharp _huff_ as she fell to the floor. Groaning, she put her phone back to her ear. "Suzi, I need your help," she muttered quietly.

" _Uh-huh,_ " Suzi responded slowly, " _so much so that you wanted to actually invite me to your private slumber party?_ "

"Suzi, _please_ ," Daquiri pleaded, not even put off for being reduced to begging. "Gypsy's gone _crazy_ and I—I can't handle her alone."

" _What a surprise_ ," she heard Suzi mutter into the receiver. " _How do you even expect me to get there?"_ Sue asked in a normal voice again. _"In case you've forgotten, I can't go outside, either."_

"I don't _know_ ," Daquiri moaned. "Wear sunglasses? Bring an umbrella? Wear a hoodie? All I know is Gypsy—"

There was suddenly a familiar _oof!_ and the sound of something slapping against the floor. Then continued giggling.

Daquiri let out another groan. "Has turned _herself_ into a mermaid along with me. I seriously don't know what to do with her. She won't listen to _anything._ "

Suzi sighed on the other end. " _Okay. I'll figure it out. I'll get there as soon as I can._ "

* * *

"Can you drive me over to Gyp's house?"

With Gypsy's house being a fifteen minute drive away, walking wasn't a very realistic option, nor did Suzi want to take her chances with it. But her dad was busy with work, and her mother asked enough nosy mom questions on a daily basis without needing to witness Suzi doing weird things to avoid moonlight.

So that left Indy.

" _Oh, are you guys hanging out tonight?_ "

Suzi repressed a sigh. As much as she seemed to be the _only_ advocate for avoiding Indy to keep the Secret, or at least the only one capable of it, she didn't particularly like it any better. She knew how it looked from Indy's point of view. And she knew it wasn't fair to him.

But somehow, the Secret had become more important.

"Yeah…" Suzi stared back at herself in her vanity mirror, furrowing her coal-black brows at her reflection. "It's kind of a...girl's night thing. Gypsy really wanted Ri to spend the night with us to try making her feel more part of the group, and…" she trailed off.

" _Oh. I, uh...I see._ "

It physically pained Suzi to hear him mask his own disappointment.

" _How come your parents can't drive you?_ "

She knew Indy well enough to be aware that he normally wouldn't even ask a question like that if he weren't hurt or frustrated. And she couldn't blame him for his voice suddenly becoming stiffer, when it probably looked like she was simply asking him just to rub the fact he hadn't been invited in his face.

"They both went out to some dinner thing, and Regina has to watch the kids," she lied. "I know it's not exactly convenient for you, but…"

" _No, it's fine. I'll leave in a few._ "

Suzi quietly thanked him before hanging up the phone. She glared at the device for a moment before letting out a loud groan and collapsing against the back of her chair. Why had Gyp and Ri needed her _tonight_ of all nights? She'd just been going to spend it in her room alone, her first full moon _without_ Gypsy, since her friend had decided the best way to ease Daquiri into the group was by a lot of one-on-one sessions. But of _course_ Daquiri needed her the moment the moon became a problem. None of this would've happened if she had just _been there_ in the first place.

True to his word, Indy was at her house less than 20 minutes later, and luckily texted so there wasn't any possibility for awkward run-ins with one of her parents, who were in fact both there. She took a breath before opening her front door, making sure her sunglasses and hood were in place. This was absolutely ridiculous.

She could almost feel Indy giving her a weird look when she got into his car.

"What the hell are you wearing."

He always knew just what to say.

"Gyp wanted us doing some...thing." She waved her hand in the air while keeping her eyes down, trying to think up something. "I dunno, pretend to be part of a gang?" She paused. "Some _Psych_ episode or something."

"You look ridiculous."

Suzi had to resist the urge to roll her eyes—not being able to look at the moon had a lot more repercussions than she thought sometimes. "I've seen you wear plenty of ridiculous things because of Gyp before so I wouldn't be talking," she grumbled.

"Yeah, sure, when she's _here_ , and when it's not _night time_."

"Would you just drive?" she snapped, turning her head towards him slightly.

She couldn't quite see through her sunglasses and with it already getting dark out, but she immediately regretted her words when there were a few moments of silence before the sound of the ignition turning over came on.

And he did just drive. In silence. The entire way back to Gyp's house.

Suzi didn't move right away when Indy parked the car in the driveway. She rolled some half-baked apologies around in her head, but couldn't really think of one that sounded plausibly genuine.

"So what are you doing tonight?" she finally asked, her voice lower.

Beat of silence.

"Probably gonna go out on a dive."

That response made her frown, and she looked over at her friend as best she could with her moon-protection get-up. "Diving? At night?"

He just shrugged.

" _Alone?_ "

"I have a license. Not like it's illegal."

"It doesn't sound particularly safe, either," she said wryly.

"I have the training. It's safe for me."

Suzi let out a short breath. "Fine, whatever. Don't complain to me if you die." She got out of the car, unsure of whether that had been an exchange of their usual scathing banter or actual irritation. She pushed it aside for now.

Neither of them really said goodbye before she shut the door and walked up to Gypsy's front door, letting herself in without any sort of announcement.

* * *

Christopher was attempting to bury his own anger and misgivings into the box that resided in the corner of his head, where he tried to stuff all emotions he didn't know what to do with. Even with his wetsuit, the cold waters of the ocean at night helped him attempt to let off some steam.

When he and Sue weren't joking, they were arguing, and when they argued, they _argued._ He didn't particularly like dealing with his frustration any more than he did ambiguous feelings, because he didn't know how to properly deal with any of them. So he dove instead. Occupied his time. And his mind.

He was diving somewhere he hadn't really explored much before, so that along with the extra care he had to take due to it being night kept his mind off other things. For the most part.

Christopher was diving near the cliffside wall and he frowned at the underwater sound of a waterfall. He surfaced to see some kind of spring coming out of the side of the cliff, large enough to make a decent-sized waterfall.

A bit curious, he brought out his flashlight to study the wall more. He thought something looked sort of interesting higher up, and he moved one of his flippered feet to find the wall and try to boost himself up a bit. He frowned when there was no wall for his foot to connect with, however.

Ducking back under the water, he went to investigate further, shining his flashlight below him—down where the wall _should_ have been. With the way the cliff came down into the water he wouldn't even have guessed there was an opening there—but there appeared to be an alcove. Swimming down a bit deeper, he found the space was large enough for him to fit through—another underwater cave. Or—no? Frowning, he swam further and found himself in the middle of a deep pool that opened up into a cavern. It was light inside, however, and looking up he saw a skylight in the ceiling directly over the pool. The moonlight must have been seeping through.

Looking around, he saw the cavern was actually fairly spacious—a full-on cave. The pool seemed to be the main attraction within it, but there was a good amount of stalagmites and stalactites, even some that were so old they had formed thick pillars, that were there to catch interest as well. Swimming to the edge of the pool, he hefted himself out and onto the edge. He looked around as he took his flippers off, setting them aside before standing up. The ceiling was actually a fair height above him, even with him standing at his full 6'4". The highest point was above the pool, which had to be more than 20 feet up to the skylight. Must have been the top of the cliff.

He noticed another opening on the opposite end of the cave, one that led off into darkness. Curious, he turned his flashlight back on and walked over to it, shining his light into the pitch black tunnel. It appeared to go for a ways. He briefly glanced back to the pool before continuing on into the passage.

He walked for a little ways, shining his flashlight around as he went. It wasn't until further in that he caught notice of the ceiling. It was taller than him, tall enough to be out of arm's reach—which was mainly noteworthy because of what appeared to be on the ceiling. Crystalline gemstones speckled the top of the tunnel, clustered in different shapes and sizes and sparkling against the light of his flashlight. His narrowed his eyes up at them. They absolutely covered the ceiling, jutting out as far down the tunnel as he could see. He would've liked to get a closer look at them. If he could come back with his camera…

He shone his light down the tunnel again. It faded off into darkness, though it looked like there were other passage openings that led off in different directions. He would've liked to see if they led to another entry point somewhere, but that would be better done when it wasn't night time and he had equipment to keep himself from getting lost. Which would be interesting to transport if his only access point currently was from underwater…

He went over it more in his head as he turned around and headed back to the cave. Perhaps this would also be something Sue and Gyp were actually interested in exploring—it would be better to have multiple people involved in this kind of thing in the first place, and it wouldn't just be the usual sites from underwater diving then.

He was distracted from his thoughts by a weird noise coming from the pool as he walked back into the cave. Frowning, he went back over to it. The water inside was bubbling rather furiously—a phenomenon that only made him frown deeper. He noted the broken reflection of something bright in the water that hadn't been there before, and looking up he saw part of the full moon as it passed over the skylight. He knelt down at the edge of the pool to look down into it, see if there was anything causing the bubbles from below. It was rather hard to see past the bubbling white water, but he couldn't see anything immediately conspicuous. Perhaps some sort of trapped air pocket being let loose?

The bubbling abruptly stopped. As he peered into the settling water, he still couldn't find any sort of source. Weird. He dipped his hand into the water to test the temperature, but it didn't feel any different than it had before.

He slowly sat down more properly at the edge so he could put his flippers back on. The unexplained bubbling had left him with a slightly unsettled feeling, like there was maybe more to this cave than he had thought. He pushed the feeling away, though. There must have been some sort of scientific reasoning behind the bubbling; and besides, there were a lot of weird things that went on in the ocean and caves alike.

Shaking his head, he pushed himself off the edge and back into the pool. He would come back here soon, hopefully with the girls to help him explore more thoroughly, and with his camera and some other equipment in tow. Maybe some new answers would turn up then.

* * *

There was a knock at the door.

Suzi groaned. "Really, Indy? _Now?!"_

"How do you know it's him?" Daquiri asked, trying to hold the Sharpie markers out of Gyp's reach.

"He knocks like that every time," Suzi muttered, rolling her eyes.

Gypsy suddenly sprang up and ran to the door, despite the other girls' best efforts to intercept her. She threw it open and immediately latched onto a very startled Indy.

"Uh, hi, Gyp," he said slowly, probably taken aback by the sudden close contact. He still had his arms out in their surprised position above Gyp's hug. "Can I step inside?" he asked patiently, but still sounding a bit put-off.

Gyp plopped down on his foot and tightly hugged his leg. "Walk!"

Indy stared at her for a long moment, then glanced up at the other girls for an even longer moment.

Gyp rocked back and forth impatiently. "Walk! Walk!"

Suzi pressed her lips together; she wasn't entirely sure how Indy was going to react.

When it was clear that things were only going to get more annoying from here and he wasn't getting any help, Indy carefully worked around the door, dragging his newly added deadweight. With some effort he managed to shut the door closed behind him. He took a slow breath before pointing down at Gypsy. His expression did not look at all happy. "Does someone want to explain... _this?_ " he asked, his voice more of a low growl. His glare, however, was directed at Suzi.

Suzi exchanged a look with Ri. She gave a short sigh through her nose. "It's not what you think it is, Indy. Calm down." She made a short gesture to Ri to let her know she'd deal with this new problem.

Indy's hard look stayed on her for a moment before he bent over and pulled at Gypsy's arms. "Gyp, what are you doing? C'mon, get up," he said, his voice a bit gentler but leaving no room for nonsense. Gypsy, however, pouted at him and buried her face into his knees, clinging tighter. Suzi heard him give a slight huff. He hesitated a moment. Then he rubbed his face.

"Do you want...juice? Chocolate milk?"

Gypsy seemed to actually perk up slightly at that, and she peeked her eyes back out. "Juice?"

"Sure, juice," Indy agreed. "C'mon, you'll get some if you get up."

Suzi was on edge as Indy interacted with Gyp. She honestly wasn't sure how Indy was taking this—other than apparently being angry with Suzi. He had to think this somehow resembled Gypsy's usual symptoms, but would he be suspicious about the rest of it…?

Gypsy paused in thought for a moment, then raised her arms up.

Indy's eyes did a short roll up to the ceiling. Lifting Gypsy up to her feet, however, his gaze settled on Suzi in a look that clearly said ' _I blame you.'_ Suzi only gave him a sour look back.

"Can you get her some juice?" Indy guided Gypsy over to Ri. "She likes pineapple and mango, if they have any."

Ri glanced over at Suzi with an uneasy questioning look, like she wasn't sure why the hell Indy was suddenly taking the reins on this, but she took Gypsy's hand and led her, now whining about something or other, over to the kitchen.

Suzi rubbed a hand over her face. This was almost like normal Gypsy, but emotional and on steroids and it was giving her a headache. Her hand still covering her mouth, propped up by her elbow on her other arm, she glanced back up at Indy. He was glaring at her. Very fiercely.

"Can I talk to you in the office for a minute." It wasn't a question, and his voice sounded like it was barely containing his anger.

Suzi momentarily considered whether or not actually doing what Indy asked would be bad for her immediate health. With a shallow sigh, she turned to make her way to Gypsy's dad's study. She more felt rather than heard Indy following her. His presence could have knocked over a tree.

The moment Indy shut the door behind them, he absolutely exploded.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL _FU_ —" Indy cut his own shout off with a sharp, hissing intake of breath. He glanced back at the door; it may have been shut, but half the _neighborhood_ could have heard his bellowing roar, not to mention Gyp and Ri. He wordlessly clenched and unclenched a fist, which Suzi almost idly wondered if she should find alarming.

"What," Indy started again, his voice quieter, "the _hell_ did you do."

Of course, "quieter" still meant a rather loud snarl.

Suzi did her best not to wince at being yelled at directly in the face from two feet away. By a six-foot-four bear. "Why are you even here, anyway," she asked in a near-retort, dodging her friend's question. "I thought you were diving."

"I realized I left my camera over here," he answered briefly, clearly irritated by the deviation, which he backed up with the short and dismissive gesture he gave along with the reply. "But that doesn't answer _my_ question."

"I didn't do _anything,_ Indy," she returned, her voice tight to keep from snapping. _Her_ yelling would only aggravate him further.

"Oh, you didn't do _anything?_ You're going to stand there while Gyp is outside like _that_ and claim you didn't let _anything_ happen?"

Being torn into for something that wasn't even her fault, on _top_ of the fact that she hadn't even _been_ here when the episode first started, was really pissing Suzi off. "So because _you're_ not here, you just _automatically_ assume that everything is _my_ fault? I wasn't even _he_ —"

Suzi cut herself short then. She realized almost too late that if she revealed that it had been _Daquiri_ who had been alone with Gypsy when it happened, Indy would _never_ forgive her. And it wasn't necessarily that she cared enough about Ri to shield what people thought of her, but...it wasn't any more the other girl's fault than it was Suzi's. And she really didn't deserve _Indy's_ wrath of all people's.

Suzi took a slow breath. "I don't think this has anything to do with people, Indy. Have you ever thought that maybe this kind of thing just _happens_ sometimes?"

Indy's clenching jaw was a surefire sign that she was still saying the wrong things.

He swore at her. "Do you know when this happened last, Sue? An episode like _this?_ When Gyp was _ten_. _Five years ago_. Her acting like this doesn't even make any _sense_ , and you think 'this kind of thing' just _happens?_ " He let out another harsh swear, and Suzi was concerned he was going to punch something.

Trying to explain this to Indy wasn't going to work.

"You need to cool off," she muttered. There was no reasoning with him when he was like this. She pushed past him to the door. "Take a breather." She opened it back up to leave.

"Sue," Indy argued, turning around with her.

"Just _chill_ for fifteen minutes!" she shouted at him, slamming the door behind her.

The near-immediate jostle of the handle was expected, and Sue began to storm away before Indy could get back to yelling at her. Against her better judgement, though, she paused when the jostling continued.

"...uh. Sue?" came Indy's muffled voice.

The handle jiggled more. Suzi frowned.

"...the door won't open."

Furrowing her brow, Suzi opened her mouth to ask what was wrong when she stopped upon looking at the door handle. It was almost completely frozen over. Suzi took an alarmed step back at the sight of frost slowly creeping out from the corners of the door.

She quietly swore in Spanish.

"...Sue?"

"Uh." Suzi glanced over her shoulder. "It...isn't working on this side, either. I'll...go see if I can figure it out." She started backing away. "Sit tight." She turned to hurry off to the kitchen.

She found out very quickly that Ri didn't seem to be having much better luck.

Ri looked relieved when she saw Suzi. "Thank God you're back," she breathed. She paused to suddenly tug Gypsy's shirt down, as the girl had started to pull the article over her head, fully exposing her tiny polka-dotted bra as she complained about being hot. It was well enough that Indy was stuck in the study, because the sight probably would have given him a heart attack. "Gypsy, _no_." Ri sounded exasperated. The redhead sent her a pained look. "Fox was never this bad."

Suzi sighed deeply. "Honestly, I don't know how Indy ever handled her."

Gypsy had a bored expression on her face and started fiddling with some pens and crayons scattered across the table. Her empty juice cup was rolling gently side to side, having been recently knocked over by one or another of Gypsy's antics.

Daquiri looked between the rainbow child and Suzi. There was a quizzical expression on her brow. "What do you mean?"

Suzi eased herself down into one of the kitchen table chairs, opposite to where Gypsy was sitting. "Well, ever since Gyp was little, she—"

" _Stop talking_ ," Gypsy bellowed, scowling at Suzi before going back to taking apart one of the pens.

Suzi rolled her eyes up to the ceiling.

They stayed there for several prolonged moments.

"...why are there crayon scribbles on the ceiling?"

Glancing up, Ri made a face. "I tried getting Gyp to color in one of her coloring books. You don't want to know how she managed to get it on the ceiling."

Suzi sent a sidelong look at Gypsy, whose attention had drifted to the cabinets beneath the sink. "I'm assuming that's why her entire crayon collection is on the floor," she said dryly.

Ri gave her a bit of a helpless shrug. Pausing then, the girl frowned. "Where did Christopher go?"

Suzi grimaced. "Ah, that's kind of another problem…" At Daquiri's apprehensively inquiring face, Suzi gave a bit of a huff. "I may have...accidentally frozen him inside the study."

"You _what?_ "

"It was an accident, okay?" Suzi snapped. "I don't even know how it happened, it just...did."

"Sounds like you just...lost control."

Suzi's face soured further at the barb in Ri's voice. "Would you just help me get him out?"

With a slight sigh, the other girl stood up. Then she glanced at Gypsy. "What do we do about her?"

Suzi waved her hand a bit dismissively. "She can be left alone for a minute, she won't kill herself."

It took a couple minutes to get the office door open, but only because Ri had to melt the ice all over the door before actually addressing the doorknob, since they couldn't have Indy coming out a door that looked like a popsicle. Hopefully it had only been on the outside...

"There," Ri said as she finished. She jiggled the handle slightly, assumedly to make sure it was cool enough for her to touch, before opening it to Indy standing on the other side.

He frowned down at the knob, closing the door and turning it back and forth experimentally. "How did you get it open?" he asked Ri.

"I have eighty in lock picking," the redhead deadpanned dryly. Then she turned to go back to the kitchen.

Indy seemed to awkwardly hold back for a moment. He glanced at Suzi. "It was stuck earlier," he mumbled, perhaps a bit self-consciously. Suzi merely gave a small snort and shrugged. They both followed Ri back to the kitchen.

Things didn't get much better there.

The three of them stared at Gyp as she played with her still-assembled pen at the table, making childish airplane noises.

"So," Christopher started, his voice slightly dry. "When did this start?" The sink suddenly spurted water for an instant, and he turned the faucet away from where he was now leaning against the counter.

"About an hour ago," Suzi said, crossing her arms and looking away. It wouldn't be smart to say when it had _actually_ started, considering it was before Indy had dropped her off earlier.

Gypsy's airplane-pen fired lasers against her empty cup.

"We've just been trying to keep her out of trouble until she decides to go back to normal," Daquiri chipped in carefully.

Indy grumbled a bit at that comment, but clearly was in no mood to correct more thoroughly. Suzi didn't say anything about it, either; Ri didn't actually know what was going on—or rather, what _Indy_ thought was actually going on—but now wasn't really the time or place to explain it.

Christopher walked over to the table and plucked up Gyp's empty cup at that point.

Gypsy broke off from her airplane game to make a complaining noise.

"I'm getting you more juice," he said quickly, his voice taking up a defensive tone.

Gyp seemed mildly satisfied with that after some short consideration and went back to playing with the pen. Christopher gave her a weird look before glancing up at the ceiling and returning to the kitchen to refill the cup.

"Don't worry," he almost idly commented, seemingly to Ri, "she should calm down soon enough. Eventually."

Daquiri just nodded at him, but she crinkled her brow in Suzi's direction, clearly confused. Suzi waved her off, silently telling her not to worry about it right now.

Switching her attention to Indy, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Same old drill just like always, huh, Indy?" She didn't even bother to mask the reproach in her voice.

He only gave her a look in response before going back to what he was doing.

Christopher finished refilling Gyp's drink but stopped by the sink before bringing it back. He gave it an odd look and turned the knob closed a bit more firmly, apparently still weirded out by the spurting thing. Suzi had a slightly bad feeling about that.

As he came back, Gypsy had apparently tired of her airplane game and started making floating shapes out of the juice Christopher was carrying. Suzi and Daquiri stiffened.

Fortunately, Christopher happened to have pulled out his phone to check something as he walked back when she started the water magic.

" _Gypsy_ ," Daquri hissed. The girl merely ignored her in response, clearly amused as she shaped a floating water droplet into a star and decidedly not paying any heed to anything Ri and Suzi had to say.

Suzi opted for another approach. She kicked the extra chair at the table into Christopher's shin, making him spill the drink all over himself.

He took a long breath and looked down at his juice-covered shirt. He gave Suzi a much more irritated look than the last.

She returned it with an innocent look and a shrug.

Christopher frowned at her and returned to the kitchen.

Suzi slid into the chair next to Gypsy and leaned in close to her. "Will you cool it with the mermaid stuff, Gyp?" she said quickly, her voice low and stern. "I know the moon's messing with you, but _please_ try to listen to me. Do you understand?"

Gypsy stuck her tongue out at Suzi and giggled a bit, tapping her hands against the table in a restless but excited pattern. Suzi seriously hoped that meant yes.

Suzi's attention went back to Christopher when he turned on the faucet, only for it to suddenly spray _everywhere_. He quickly shut it off again. Now instead of a single wet spot from the juice on his shirt, he was _soaked._ He stood there in stunned silence for a long moment.

"I think the sink needs fixed," he said simply. He wiped off his face with one of the towels by the sink.

All of a sudden, Gypsy slammed her hands down on the table and flat-out started _wailing_. She threw her head back. "JUICE!" she screamed.

Daquiri shot Suzi a rather distressed look. Suzi half wished she could reassure the girl that this wasn't the first time they had dealt with a Gypsy outburst, but it would probably only confuse Daquiri more.

Christopher came back to the table quickly, handing a re-refilled drink to their friend.

Gypsy smacked it out of his hands, spilling it all over him again.

Christopher gave her a flat look.

" _No!_ " Gypsy pout-screamed. "I want _ocean_ juice!"

"Gyp, that's called 'saltwater' and you can't drink that," Christopher said dryly.

Gypsy proceeded to scream louder.

Christopher looked up at the ceiling again and Suzi whacked him hard on the arm, giving him a look. He put up his hands and went back to the fridge to grab a different drink.

When Gypsy also loudly refused the new juice, Christopher quickly moved it out of her arm's reach before sitting down a couple chairs away from her. "Okay. I give up."

Suzi snorted. "What, you mean _bribe-the-child_ suddenly isn't working for you?"

Christopher gestured with a slight scowl. "Well, you're free to step in any time, professor." He took a sip of the rejected juice. He made a face and looked to see what he had poured. "Who bought this?" He got up again to get himself a drink he liked better.

Suzi made a face at him, but she stood up. "Fine. I have six younger siblings who were actually taught a thing or two about _discipline_." She had to keep herself from spitting the word at Indy. She stalked over to Gypsy.

"Gypsy Gwendolyn Venir, that is _enough_ ," she said firmly, her voice raised. "Do you _want_ a timeout?"

Gypsy paused in her screaming. She looked at Suzi with wide eyes. Her lip quivered for a moment; then she started balling.

Christopher raised his cup in a mock toast. "You should hold seminars," he quipped. He flashed a smile when Suzi threw a balled up paper towel at him.

Daquiri sighed and suddenly spoke up. "Let me try," she said, walking over to Gypsy.

"Oh yeah, like the temperamental redhead will do better," Suzi said sarcastically, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

"Well, you made her _cry,_ " Christopher pointed out from the kitchen, where he'd gone back to lean against the counter. "Can't do much worse than that."

Suzi snapped some things in Spanish that were not the least bit complimentary.

"Not in front of the _children_ ," Christopher chided dramatically.

"Would you _both_ shut up?" Daquiri snapped vehemently. She scowled at both of them, then turned back to Gypsy, who was still crying. Suzi put up her hands before turning away moodily.

Daquiri hesitated a moment, then knelt down next to Gypsy's chair. Suzi gave her a bit of a strange look, but Daquiri ignored her. "Hey, Gyp, it's okay," she said, her voice soft but steady. "You're okay." Gypsy still seemed convinced that she was not, however, since her face was still red with tears.

Closing her eyes, Daquiri let out a slow breath. Then putting a hand gingerly over Gypsy's, she started to sing for her.

At the sound of Daquiri singing, Christopher stiffened so suddenly he banged his knee on the floor cabinets and knocked his empty cup off of the counter, both with an embarrassingly loud sound. He fumbled to grab the cup for a moment, then looked at the girls staring at him. Suzi raised her brow at him. He worked his jaw for a moment, making small gestures as he appeared to work on an explanation. Before he could, though, the sink suddenly decided to spray him again. He scrambled to turn it off once again, but not before being thoroughly soaked. Again.

" _Why,_ " he demanded of the sink in frustration.

Gypsy had begun to quiet, but the noise from the kitchen suddenly made her start up again.

" _Christopher_ ," Daquiri said through gritted teeth.

He looked at her apologetically and gave a bit of a helpless shrug, but Daquiri just frowned at him and went back to singing.

Suzi waited several long moments before walking over next to Indy. "Nice going, Klutzo," she said dryly, her voice low as she leaned up against the counter next to him, leaving Daquiri to work her charms by herself.

He made a noise but otherwise didn't respond.

Suzi's face stayed passively emotionless for a minute or so. She watched as Daquiri sang some lullaby-sounding pop song to Gyp. Then she finally gave Indy a sidelong glance. "You gonna tell me what that was?"

All Indy did was pause before making a rather noncommittal noise in response.

Still watching Ri, she pressed her lips together in thought. "Not a fan of someone's singing, huh?"

There was another pause. "...no, it's nice," Indy finally ventured.

Suzi raised an eyebrow, turning her head towards him ever so slightly. "But?"

Indy shifted and just gave another grunt.

Suzi shrugged. "Fine, don't tell me, then." She coolly looked forward, still casually leaned up next to him. "You can be a depressed music-hater if you want."

He gave her a look that was trying not to be amused.

She looked back at him with a knowing smirk and nudged him slightly with her shoulder.

He nudged her back.

Suzi looked at him when he took a breath, but then his head turned away from her. Suzi raised her eyebrow a bit at him.

"Were you going to say something?" she asked. Her voice wasn't quite hinting, but she could guess what words Indy was suddenly tied up over.

He glanced at her for a split second before looking back to the floor. He mumbled something.

"Yeah?"

He took another breath. "I..."

Suzi looked at him more expectantly now, propping her elbows on the counter behind her and leaning back on them.

Indy rubbed his neck a little. "Back in...uh, the office...uh, well..." His mumbling was only slightly more comprehensible now, but Suzi decided to wait it out a bit longer.

He gestured vaguely, which always meant he had no idea how to word something. Or he just had issues saying it. "I didn't—I mean, I guess I...shouldn't..."

Suzi leaned towards him a bit. "I'm going to pretend you actually know how to apologize and tell you I forgive you for your animalistic outburst."

"Please?" Indy looked relieved.

Rolling her eyes, Suzi gave him a good-humored shove to the head.

He cracked a smile back at her.

They probably would have gotten into a full-out shoving match if Ri didn't finally stand up. She turned to them with her eyebrows raised.

"So…" She twirled her hair and flitted her eyes to Indy. "How comfortable are you with carrying Gypsy upstairs?"

Indy gave a long sigh at Gypsy's passed out body in her chair, a sticky thumb in her mouth, and went over to pick her up.

"Wait!" Daquiri suddenly said. Indy paused to look at her. Suzi almost didn't realize what she was doing, but was glad when she saw Ri stealing a throw blanket off the couch. She'd completely forgotten Indy was still soaking wet.

Indy frowned. "You know she has plenty of blankets upstairs already, it's fine."

"Use it anyway," Daquiri insisted.

"But it's not even cold," he said slowly.

"And who's the one that knows more about taking care of kids? Yeah, not you." Ri draped the blanket around Gypsy herself, making sure she was completely covered. "Make sure you don't touch her without the blanket when you're carrying her up."

Suzi raised an eyebrow at that and glanced at Indy to see how he would react to being told how to take care of _Gypsy_ of all people.

Indy's brows came together. "Why does it matter if I touch her, it's not like I can pick her up without touching her in some way."

"You're all wet," Daquiri said, giving him a disdainful look.

"It won't wake her up, it's not like I'm dumping water on her," Indy retorted, slight annoyance creeping into his tone.

Daquiri crossed her arms and glared at him. "When you've taken care of a kid since he was born, _then_ you can argue with me about it. Just do it."

"Could you not babysit while he was still in the womb or was it a Union thing?" Indy muttered. Still, he picked Gypsy up with a slight grunt, doing as Ri demanded. He left to put her in her bed.

Daquiri ran a hand through her hair before sitting down a bit heavily in the chair Gypsy had occupied. She looked at Suzi. "Is he _usually_ that much of a pain in the ass?"

Suzi smirked. "And you felt bad about us ditching him before, didn't you."

Daquiri only snorted in response.

"He pretends he's polite and shy and junk around people that he doesn't really know, but you're through with 'Indy Initiation' when he starts exchanging 'um' for snark." Suzi rolled her eyes. "Believe me, I went through it too. _We're_ the ones making him go fishing so much to give _us_ a break."

The redhead scoffed lightly at that. "I'm sure."

Ri fell silent after that, and Suzi noticed it wasn't a very quiet silence. The girl was practically scowling at the table top. Glancing up towards the stairs, Suzi went over to sit across from her. Daquiri didn't pay much attention to her when she sat down.

Now she was raising a questioning brow to the redhead. Was she really having a therapy session with _everyone_ tonight? "Alright, you went from singing to pissed. What gives?"

Daquiri only gave her what looked to be a bit of an unimpressed look. She didn't say anything.

Suzi sighed. This girl was as bad as Indy. She inclined her head to the side a bit like she was referencing something. "You said 'he' back there."

Daquiri narrowed her eyes at that. "What?"

"Telling Indy off," she said flatly. "You said 'he'. Were you talking about Fox?"

The girl paused at that. "Yeah," she finally said. Much to Suzi's chagrin, she didn't say anything past that.

Crossing her arms, Suzi leaned back in her chair. "If I remember correctly, I mentioned I have six younger siblings earlier. We have someone now who acts as a nanny a lot of the times, but still...it's hard to get by as the oldest of seven without learning how to help raise a kid or two. So I have my fair share of experience."

Daquiri gave her more than a passing glance at that, at least. Most of the scowl seemed to have at least left her expression.

"Seems like you're a lot better at it than I am, though," Suzi continued, leaving more of an opening this time.

The girl pursed her lips. Her forehead creased as she stared at Suzi for a bit. Suzi could only guess what she was looking for.

 _Finally_ , she spoke up.

"My mom left when Fox was still practically a baby. My brother and I just kind of stepped in where she left off since then." Ri glanced over at the stairs for a moment. "We didn't exactly have a choice."

Suzi followed her eyes to where Indy had disappeared last. How was it these two managed to unknowingly offend the other when neither hardly ever spoke? Seriously. "I wouldn't consider what he says too much when he's grumpy," she said, looking back to Ri. "It tends to be the only time he doesn't go over it in his head ten times." She kept her voice light, nodding towards upstairs. "Actually, most people wouldn't have even heard him make a comment like that." Suzi raised a brow at her. "You're a lot better at hearing him than most."

Daquiri didn't reply to that, so Suzi moved on. "I guess your dad was just busy?"

That earned her a bit of a strained look for whatever reason. "He was...pretty upset about my mom leaving." Ri looked off to the side. "For a while." She straightened in her chair then. "But yes. He's mainly just busy now."

Suzi nodded. She figured there was probably more, but figured further that Ri probably didn't want to continue talking about it. So she gave her a wry smile instead. "Well I guess it came in handy, at least. I don't think Indy would be quite as willing to carry a two-hundred pound mermaid up the stairs."

That got her a slightly amused look from Daquiri, which Suzi considered a fair success. They both looked over when they heard the landing at the top of the stairs creaking. Indy walked down, tousling his damp hair.

"Dried off?" Suzi asked as he came over.

Indy scoffed. "Still wet," he said, leaving his hair alone and adjusting the shirt that was stuck to his body. "Like I fell in a pool."

"It's not like you don't spend all your time in there anyway," she returned dryly.

"But then I'm wet because I'm in a pool, not because the fates decided that I was going to get drenched multiple times without being anywhere near the ocean."

"Maybe they just figure you've become one with the sea by now," she said with a smirk. She rested her chin on her hand then. "Is Gyp asleep?"

"Sawing logs."

"Good." Suzi massaged her temples. "I hope she stays that way 'til morning."

Ri had been sitting there silently up until then, though Suzi had noticed she'd gone back to looking mildly quizzical, in her quiet and observant way. Suzi laid her hand back down on the table and looked at her. "Does the audience have something to comment?"

Daquiri looked between her and Indy a bit uneasily like she wasn't sure if she should ask her question or not. Then she finally ventured with, "You didn't exactly seem...surprised by all of...that." Her question was tentatively directed more towards Indy, for obvious reasons.

Indy's expression sobered slightly, and he gave a small sigh. "Gyp has had ADHD since I met her, and also deals with a lot of anxiety because of it. It doesn't usually flare up into a bout that bad, especially not nowadays, and it's normally manageable and fine, but…" He frowned. "Well, normally stressful things trigger that sort of thing." He looked back over at Suzi. "Which brings me back to my original question."

"I wasn't lying when I said we didn't do anything," Suzi insisted. She glanced over at Ri. "I guess there just must have been...unseen forces involved." It was her turn to frown then. "It's the fact that it still _happens_ that I'm more worried about." She didn't exactly want to start the argument up with Indy again, but now that Gypsy wasn't an issue anymore, she didn't just want to leave the topic at rest, either.

"Disorders don't just go away you know."

"I'm aware," she said, her voice a bit tight, "But there are much healthier ways to deal with it _long term_ than your methods, Christopher." Technically, she knew this wasn't even actually a _real_ episode, and using it as one may or may not have been accurate, but her point still stood. She didn't want to keep letting it go now that it was brought up again.

Indy didn't quite respond right away. "Well, we can try and build those up when it's quieter, but episodes aren't really a good time for experimenting."

"You've said similar things the past two years," she argued, though keeping her tone in check at least. "You can't just let her stay dependent on you forever, Indy."

Indy opened his mouth to say something, but then apparently thought better of it. "Look." He brought his hand back from where he had paused it mid-motion. "If you want to talk _practical options_ , then we can go at it all day tomorrow, when we can loudly accuse each other of being stupid. But since we can't change anything overnight right now, we might as well save it for when we're both at least more rational."

Suzi gave him a long look. "Fine. Tomorrow." She sat back in her chair with her arms crossed, not feeling particularly any more satisfied with the situation.

Indy checked his phone for a moment when it was apparent the conversation was over, and started texting someone.

"Late for a hot date?" Suzi asked him wryly, though her tone didn't quite reach the normal joking level that it usually did between them.

Indy gave a half smirk in response. "Yeah, my mom. At home." He finished and put his phone away. "Gotta head out, but crisis averted, at least," he added. He gave a short nod to each of the girls. "Later."

With that he left.

Before either of the girls could strike up another conversation, there was a sharp swear from outside. Indy promptly walked back in, dripping wet from head to toe and heading straight to the bathroom.

"Sprinklers?"

"Sprinklers."

"At this point I'd just accept it," Suzi called after him. He only made a loud annoyed noise in response, and Suzi snorted.

Despite the amusing situation, though, it didn't do much to lighten her mood. With a slight growled groan, she let her head thump down over her crossed arms on the table top. Indy could be such a stubborn _a—_

"I'm still not really sure I understand something," Ri piped back up again, a frown in her voice. Suzi glanced up at her from her vantage point on the table.

"I...thought it was the full moon that was making Gypsy act that way," the redhead said slowly.

Suzi glanced in the direction of the bathroom to make sure Indy was still preoccupied. "It was," she confirmed, sitting back up in her chair. "It just also happened to resemble a bad manifestation of Gyp's ADHD. Albeit, it was the kind of episode that, to my knowledge, she normally would have had when she was _younger_ , more elementary, maybe even in middle school at the latest." She frowned. "It seems to me it was too close of a resemblance to have been a coincidence, though. I don't pretend to know how the moon affects us to any extent—especially considering most of the times its effects don't seem to be connected—but in this case...well, it's almost like it magnified a part of Gypsy that was already there, just to a much greater extent."

Suzi shrugged. "It's a bit unfortunate that Indy has to think Gyp went through a down period when it really wasn't her disorder at all, but to be fair, that isn't the only meltdown I've witnessed of Gyp's before in recent years." She gave Daquiri a bit of a side-long glance. "Which is also why that wasn't the only disagreement Indy and I have had about the matter."

"So I noticed," Daquiri said dryly. Her brow furrowed again, however. "What exactly _was_ the disagreement?"

Suzi gave a long sigh. "ADHD treatments usually deal with different coping mechanisms, some good, some bad. And ever since Gyp and Indy became friends...well, she depends on him more than anything." Suzi rubbed her hands over her face. "She can always keep her symptoms down best when he's with her. Which isn't...terrible in the short term, since they spend so much time together. But," Suzi frowned, "Indy can't always be there. And if Gyp has a melt-down like _that_ when Indy's not there to calm her down, no one wins, and especially not Gypsy."

She gave a grumpy glance in the direction of the bathroom door. "Which is what I've been telling him for the past two years, and still nothing has changed."

Ri was silent for several moments, looking down at her hands on the table. There was a contemplative frown on her face. "Shouldn't her parents be the ones worrying about this sort of thing?"

Suzi shrugged a bit. "Gyp has meds, and of course they do what they think is best for her. And I mean honestly, yeah, Indy does help her, and has been since they were kids. But he's like an overprotective dad with a shotgun—he doesn't let Gyp fight her own battles or fix things for herself. Which, in the long-run, _is_ what she needs to do."

The redhead frowned at her. "Hasn't Gypsy been spending a lot of time around mainly you since…" She glanced over in the direction of the bathroom. "...you know."

Suzi shifted a bit uncomfortably at the sudden implication. "Well, yeah. But I'm also one of the few people she'll actually listen and respond to when she's going overboard."

The dubious look Daquiri gave her didn't make Suzi feel much better. "Do you...always talk to her the way you did back there? When you were trying to get her to listen?"

Suzi made a sour look at that. "Don't get your panties in a wad, I'm not just yelling at her all the time. I was frustrated." Daquiri's comment had made her substantially more irritated, however. She stood up. "I should check on Gyp. Make sure she's still asleep." She made her way towards the stairs, ending the conversation. "And don't you go outside," she told Ri as she started up the steps. The last thing she needed was _two_ moon-crazed mermaids to take care of.

They'd all had enough excitement for one night.

* * *

"I know when you're avoiding me, moron."

Christopher looked up from putting books into his locker to see Sue standing there. His brows came together. "Sorry?"

Suzi crossed her arms. "It's tomorrow," she said, looking at him expectantly.

Oh. That.

He turned back to his locker to get the book out for his next class. "Technically tomorrow never actually comes," he pointed out.

"Don't give me that crap, Indy," Sue snapped, in a voice that Christopher thought was much more aggravated than necessary.

He shut his locker. "I'm not avoiding you," he said simply before turning away to walk to class.

"Oh, no, you're just walking away from me," Suzi retorted sarcastically.

"I have class," he countered. "And so do you."

"So whatever happened to 'yelling at each other all day' about it?" Sue fell in step with him, despite the fact he knew her class was in the other direction.

"Do you really think the middle of _school_ is the best place for that?"

"It's as good as any other place, considering you make an excuse everywhere else as well."

"Well, this is an _actual_ excuse."

"Not if we skip class."

Christopher gave her a look. "If you're trying to talk about being responsible, I don't think skipping class is a good preface to establishing that."

"Saying that only means you acknowledge that what you're doing with Gyp is being _irresponsible_."

Christopher began to get a little annoyed then. "Don't talk to me about irresponsibility, Sue. _I_ wasn't the one that somehow let the cause of Gyp having one of the worst episodes I've seen in _years_ slip right past her," he countered, his voice taking on a more curt tone.

With a frustrated noise, Suzi dragged him off to the library.

"I _told_ you," she hissed at a whisper, "I had _nothing_ to do with what happened last night, and neither did Ri. I don't know why Gypsy had an episode, and I really don't think the cause is the issue here; the issue is that _that_ can still _happen_."

Christopher rubbed a hand over his face. "Like _I_ said last night, disorders don't just go away."

"But they _can_ get better, and Gypsy's sure as hell isn't," Suzi argued in a hushed voice. "She can't even do her _homework_ if you're not helping her through every step of the way."

"What am I supposed to do, let her fail?" Christopher snapped.

"How about have some _confidence_ in her? She'll never have confidence in herself otherwise."

"I have never told Gyp she couldn't do something," Christopher said a bit tautly, bristling slightly at the implication.

"No," Suzi agreed. "But you've never even given her a _chance_ to try to overcome things herself. You're too worried about keeping her from getting hurt."

"And you _want_ her to get hurt?"

"Indy," Suzi said, staring him steadily in the eye, "you're a crutch. The moment you're not there to help her, she can't deal. What is she supposed to do when you _can't_ be there? Because then it _will_ be your fault that she can't hold anything together by herself."

Christopher was silent in response to this. He frowned and looked away.

Leaning up against one of the bookshelves they were hiding between, Suzi let out a soft sigh. "I'm not trying to be the bad guy, Indy," she said quietly. "I love Gyp just as much as you do, and I don't want to see her get hurt, either. And I know it's hard for you to just stand by and do nothing. But I want you to consider the long term instead of just right now." Sue lightly touched his arm. "You're not going to be able to help Gyp every step of the way for the rest of her life. Just think about that."

With that, Sue left him alone.

* * *

 **A/N:** THERE. I'M DONE WITH IT FOREVER. HAH. I'm so behind in this story. My apologies. But please, if you liked it, I would love if you left a comment, and if you haven't already been following this story or me, I would greatly appreciate if you did! :D


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N:** It really FELT like I would finish this one in under a month, and I totally though I had, until I checked the last update date... But I mean, on time is still sooner than last time, right? Special thanks to my friend Flo for helping me with Indy for a large part of grocery shopping (Indy is not my character, if I haven't mentioned it before. I should probably put a link to what he looks like/my friend's deviantart page at some point), and also special thanks to my friend Regen (RegenesisX on here) for giving some advice for the ending :'D Because it's...a tad of a downer? Also, guys, this is a really long chapter. I couldn't figure out any reasonable way to cut it into two parts, so...you get all of it. Have fun.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 12| GOOD SAMARITAN**

Doing homework with Gypsy was hard-pressed for a quiet moment.

"Ugh, why does Christmas Break have to start on _Wednesday,_ " Gypsy whined for the umpteenth time, "—why not just make it Monday? It's dumb. What are we actually going to learn from those extra two days of school?"

And by "doing homework with," Daquiri meant _she_ was doing homework at the Venirs' kitchen table while Gypsy colored and chattered about everything from unicorns to jalapeño Cheetos in the seat next to her.

"Maybe things that will give us less homework for over the break," Daquiri replied almost absently as she worked at filling out a sheet for her chemistry homework. _But more likely things that will give us_ more _homework_ , she wanted to add, though knew it would only elicit more complaining from her friend. (And truthfully, she was beginning to tire a bit from all the complaining.)

The redhead tried to think of something to say to distract the girl with. "What...are you excited for over the break?" she finally asked, though her eyes continued to stay focused on the chemistry sheet.

This question did seem to make Gypsy brighten a bit.

"Well, there's that party that Kalen invited me—I mean us—to. I can't _wait_ for that." The girl paused. "Though I guess that's for New Years and not Christmas." She gave her head a quick shake, which sent her dreads flying. "But at our church all the kids always put on this little Christmas performance, and it's _super_ cute and—"

"You go to church?" Daquiri interrupted, finally looking up from her homework.

"Yeah," Gypsy said, scrunching her forehead a bit. "My whole family does. Well, Ax doesn't really anymore. I mean, he kinda didn't much anyway, but—"

"Can I come?"

Gypsy's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "You want to come to church?"

"It's...not for me," Daquiri admitted. "It's for Fox." She flushed a bit. "I've always wanted him to be able to go."

"How come you never just took him before?" Gypsy asked, cocking her head to the side.

Daquiri shrugged a bit. "Arak and Dad always work Sunday mornings, and we don't live near any ones that we could walk to." She made a slight face. "Neither of them really agree with me, either."

"Agree with what?" Gypsy made one of her dreads into a mustache and leaned her elbow on the table top. "Taking Fox to church?"

Daquiri hesitated. "I just...feel like it could teach him some things he can't learn at home." She traced one of the grain patterns on the wooden table with the eraser of her pencil. "Arak just thinks it's a waste of time, though, and my Dad doesn't really...like churches." She frowned. "I guess."

"He had a bad experience with one maybe?" Gypsy suggested.

Daquiri shrugged. "I don't really know. He just—" She paused. "Well, he's gotten mad the few times I've mentioned it before."

"Well, my parents wouldn't mind you coming with us!" Gypsy said brightly. "Have you ever been before?"

"Uh...not really."

Gypsy giggled a bit. "Not yes or no?"

She blew out a short breath through her nose. "I don't know. We used to go occasionally when I was really young, when my mom was still…" Daquiri trailed off a bit. "Well, I think she liked it better than my dad does, anyway," she muttered. She shook her head. "I hardly remember it, so...not really."

"Well, our church is Free Methodist and we're more on the casual-y side, so you don't have to dress super fancy or anything." Gypsy brightened. "And I remember going to kid's church when my parents first adopted me—it was really fun." She grinned. "I'm sure Fox will like it. And it'll be fun with you sitting with us!"

Daquiri gave her a wan smile. "Yeah."

"Cool! We can pick you up at eight-thirty tomorrow, then!"

"Ah," Daquiri said hastily, "I can get dropped off. You don't have to pick us up."

"Are you sure?"

Daquiri thought of how her dad would react if a stranger randomly showed up at their house, and to take her and her brother to church no less. "Yes."

Gypsy smiled. "Okay—sounds like a plan!"

* * *

"I still don't see a point to this," Arak said as he pulled the car up into Gypsy's driveway.

Daquiri glanced over at her older brother. She pursed her lips. "Are you really that against it?" she asked, her voice low.

Arak let out a breath. He put the car in park. "I just...don't know why _you_ of all people would want to go." He turned in his seat to face her, propping his elbow up on the back of the seat. "I would just think that, after _everything_ —"

"I'm not going for me," she interjected. Glancing at the backseat, Daquiri lowered her voice. "Both of us might already be screwed up enough, but Fox is still a kid. We should be giving him every chance to get out of our house as the _normal_ one."

"Okay, but is making him get up at seven-thirty on a _Sunday_ really going to make him any better of a person?" Arak's voice was a bit sour, and she was pretty sure the only reason he was grumpy was because _he_ didn't like getting up at seven-thirty on a Sunday. He didn't have to be into work until nine.

"It's not about getting up early, it's about what you learn there," Daquiri retorted, her voice stiff.

"And what exactly do you learn there?" her brother asked sarcastically.

Daquiri frowned, looking out the window and not responding for several moments. "...How to be good."

There was a silence in the car for several uncomfortable moments, aside from Fox's Pokémon game making noises in the backseat.

"Ri, are you sure you're not going for you."

"That's a stupid thing to ask," she muttered to the window. "I'm not exactly in any place where I can _look_ for 'redemption.'"

Arak sighed. "You're not a bad person, Ri."

"Yeah," she muttered, unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the car door, "tell that to him." She got out of the car, shutting the door behind her.

Unfortunately, Fox was sitting on Arak's side of the car so she had to go around to get him, and Arak stepped out after her before she could get the back door open.

"Ri, listen to me," he said, grabbing her arm. When Daquiri stopped, he took her by both shoulders. "That is _not_ why he does it. You never did _anything_ to make him react the way he did. That was his own choice."

Daquiri stared at a spot a few inches to the right of Arak's shoulder. "Then why does he make that choice every time," she pointed out quietly.

Arak drew her into a hug. "You're not going to find that answer at church," he told her softly.

She allowed him to hug her for a few moments, then turned her head to the side against his chest. "You could still come with us," she said in a quiet voice.

Arak pulled away a bit and looked down at her. "You know I can't. I have work."

"You always have work," she grumbled.

"We can do something together when I get home," he said with a light chuckle. He cocked her a smile. "I'll even crack open a Bible for you." Then he snorted. "You know, if we owned one."

Daquiri smiled a bit at that. Taking a breath, she stepped back. "Don't break a promise," she said, looking him in the eye with a serious face.

He smiled. "Always stay honest," he finished. He gave her arm a squeeze. "Now get out of here, you're going to make your friend late."

Giving him half a smile as she turned around, she got Fox out of the car and they started walking up to Gypsy's front porch. Then remembering something, she turned around again.

"Arak!" she called. Her brother stuck his head out the window. "You're still picking us up after grocery shopping, right?"

He gave her a thumbs up. Then he waved, before pulling his head back into the car and backing out of the driveway.

Giving him one last wave, she and Fox went and rang Gypsy's doorbell, who ushered them inside way too excitedly for eight-thirty in the morning.

* * *

Churches were…kind of weird.

They were big and sort of intimidating and were the kind of places that if there weren't a bunch of other people there it would feel like you weren't supposed to be inside, and they had large hallways like schools, except that if you uttered any kind of curse word or obscenity in these hallways it felt like something was going to pop out and drag you off to Confession.

Was Confession even a thing they did here? Or was that just Catholics?

Either way. Even with Gypsy next to her, Daquiri felt awkward being there. Like everyone who glanced at her knew she didn't actually belong there.

Mr. and Mrs. Venir had offered to take Fox down to kids church for her, and while Daquiri would've liked to see Fox off herself, she also felt weird enough walking around this reverent "holy place" without having to introduce her little brother to a bunch of church people, or get weird looks wondering why it wasn't his parents dropping him off.

Gypsy had pulled her off to the main room of the church before she could change her mind about it, anyhow.

"Oh, there's Indy!"

Before Daquiri could register that she was talking about _Christopher_ , Gypsy had dragged her over to the boy and his family. When the girl called his name, he looked over his shoulder and smiled, putting his hand up in a small wave. He turned back around to say something to his parents before walking over to intercept Gypsy.

"You came today!" Gypsy tackled her friend in a hug.

Christopher gave her a quick one-armed hug back, while at the same time glancing down at himself. "Apparently I did." He took on a bit of a sarcastically quizzical look. "Weird. Thought I'd still be sleeping now."

Gypsy made a face at him and elbowed him a bit in the stomach, which got a smile out of him. Gypsy gestured to Daquiri then, who had simply been standing there with her hands folded behind her back.

"Ri came with us today!" she said enthusiastically.

"So I see," Christopher said, an amused look still on his face. He raised a slight brow at Daquiri. "So Gyp managed to save your soul too, huh?"

Daquiri just gave a slight snort and looked away.

"She volunteered to come, actually," Gypsy offered helpfully. Then something else caught her eye. "Oh!" She waved at someone. "There's Cynthia! I'm gonna go say hi!" A second later, she had bounced off in a different direction.

Daquiri crossed her arms and gave Christopher a sidelong look. " _You_ go to church?"

Christopher raised an eyebrow at her, though gave a slight smirk. "What happened to God loving _all_ his children?"

She narrowed her eyes a bit and lowered her voice. "You swear more than my dad."

Christopher snorted a bit. "I wouldn't say you had the mouth of a saint, either. But I suppose you get that from your dad, apparently."

"I do not get _anything_ from my dad," she hissed. Then she looked away a bit. "I'm not here for me, anyway. I think my _soul_ decided a long time ago which side it wanted to align with."

"Hey," he said, his voice suddenly serious, "there's a reason it says 'come as you are.'"

Daquiri stared at him for a moment, unsure how to take what sounded like some form of spiritual encouragement coming from Christopher.

Then his straight face broke as he burst out laughing.

Rolling her eyes at him, she gave both an irritated and exasperated huff. "One of us clearly needs Jesus more than the other," she muttered, looking on as Christopher tried to stifle his laughter next to her.

"I think we can both agree the only one among us who deserves sainthood is Gyp," he replied, still trying to talk over his own apparent amusement at how hilarious he thought he was.

"That brings me back to how she got so unlucky as to become friends with _you_ ," Daquiri said dryly. "Or perhaps why her parents thought it would be a good idea." She held up her hand. "Don't tell me. They recognized a heathen when they saw one and knew you needed God's love."

Christopher got a rather mock offended look on his face. "No, I was just a poor lonely angel, gracing them with my presence."

"And then you turned out to be the devil."

Christopher burst out laughing once again. "Let me remind you the Devil started out as an angel," he somehow managed to reply through bouts of laughter.

"Did you just admit to being Satan in the middle of a church," Daquiri deadpanned.

She stood there annoyed as Christopher only doubled over at this last remark. She wasn't entirely sure _what_ he was finding so funny when she was overtly insulting him straight to his face.

She was pretty sure the only thing that could be remotely considered as amusing was the look on Gypsy's face as she came back to Daquiri, very irritated and very disgruntled, standing rather grumpily next to a still cracking up Christopher, who she was pretty sure was having trouble breathing now.

Gypsy's skip slowed to a walk as she came up to them, a rather perturbed frown on her face. She glanced from Christopher to Daquiri. "...what did he do this time?"

For whatever (clearly) idiotic reason applied, this only sent Christopher back into hilarity—which was rather unfortunate, as he'd finally started to come out of it.

"This is where it's okay to just leave him," Gypsy told her out of the side of her mouth, and began edging away. Daquiri more than willingly began to leave with her.

"No, Gyp," Christopher managed to say through his laughter. "I'm okay." He was half coughing, half laughing now. "Guys, come back!"

"Just keep walking it's okay," Gypsy told her, leaning in clandestinely.

Daquiri opened her mouth to respond when someone on the stage announced the service was starting, asking everyone to take their seats. Daquiri wasn't sure if she was relieved or more nervous to finally sit down.

"We're over this way," Gypsy told her, pulling her over to one of the rows of chairs. Daquiri sat next to Gypsy, in the seats after Mr. and Mrs. Venir.

Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten the memo that the Braddocks would be sitting right next to them.

She gave Christopher a look that probably wouldn't be encouraged in most churches when the boy sat down next to her.

"You know, I think there're about a hundred other chairs you could sit at in here," she grumbled quietly next to him.

"This is where we always sit," he said with a bit of a frown. She just gave a small eye roll before standing up with everyone else as music started.

She had a hard time concentrating on the words to the songs everyone was singing with Christopher standing right next to her. It might have been easier if she were actually singing, but with everyone around her, and in such a strange atmosphere, she felt too uncomfortable and self-conscious to sing. She tried to just concentrate on what the songs were saying instead, but found her mind wandering.

She wondered what Fox was doing with the other kids. She hoped he was having fun. In fact, she hoped she had made the right decision in even bringing him here. Perhaps Arak was right; perhaps there was no point to this. And she couldn't help wondering how her dad would react if he found out...

Before she realized it, the songs were over and everyone was sitting back down. There were a few minutes of announcements or something that she didn't really listen to and then the speaker—what was he, a pastor? Minister?—began the introduction of his sermon.

He was talking about a woman named Ruth. Apparently she was from the book of Ruth, which Daquiri supposed made sense. So if the books of the Bible were named after people...what did they do about all the books with Jesus in them? Jesus Part One, Two and Three? Sounded kind of stupid.

She didn't really understand the meaning of a handful of the words being used, either. What the hell was a Gentile? A race, maybe, she supposed. Apparently Ruth was one, but she was also referred to as a Moabite. Daquiri frowned a bit, trying to understand where the speaker was going with the story exactly. He kept referencing parts of the story in Ruth that she didn't follow without the context. Did they always talk like everyone already knew everything in churches? What the hell was the point of that?

Daquiri glanced to her right when Christopher leaned closer to her. "You seem lost," he said in a low voice.

"I'm not particularly interested in hearing the newest crash course on your spiritual revelations," she replied, her own voice, though hushed, an irritated snap.

"I—" Christopher cut himself off, seemingly startled by her response. "I just...thought you might need some filling in."

Daquiri's hostility deflated slightly. "Oh." She glanced away, fiddling with the skirt of her dress a bit. "I...um, I wouldn't want to disrupt everyone else," she whispered.

"It's fine," he said lightly. "What part didn't you get?"

"Um…" She glanced between him and the speaker up at the front. "I...don't really understand what the story is about."

Christopher nodded. "Ruth helps her mother-in-law move back to Israel after their husbands die, and works really hard to make sure she's taken care of, then ends up running into Boaz, who helps her out."

Her brow crinkled slightly at his explanation. "Who is Boaz again?"

"He owns the farm where Ruth works. He ends up marrying her."

Daquiri stayed quiet for a minute. Even with the quick run-through, she wasn't sure she entirely understood what the speaker was trying to convey. She hesitated before asking another question.

"Is, um...Jesus in this story then?"

"No." Christopher shook his head. "He doesn't come in until the New Testament. She is a direct ancestor of his, though."

Daquiri pursed her lips at this new information that she wasn't sure was all that relevant. "Why does he keep talking about him, then?"

"He's using the story as a sort of metaphor," Christopher explained. "Ruth starts out as a Gentile—a non-Jew," he clarified at her look, "—and then basically converts when she chooses to go with her mother-in-law back to Israel. This leads to Boaz, who acts as a sort of Jesus figure."

When she frowned at that, Christopher furthered the explanation.

"There's a lot of people in the Old Testament that foreshadow Jesus and his coming. Boaz takes care to make sure Ruth is well-looked after, and so Naomi—her mother-in-law—tells Ruth to stay close to him. And by marrying her, Boaz becomes Ruth's savior."

"Okay…" Daquiri said slowly. Thinking back to what the speaker had been saying, she was able to sort of piece together what it meant now. She knit her brow in concentration, thinking it over while also trying to clue back into what the speaker was saying now.

When the talk was finally being wrapped up, Daquiri leaned over to Christopher again. "What does it mean, though?" she whispered.

Christopher gave her a questioning look.

"I mean…" She hesitated a moment. "What's the point behind the story and the metaphor?"

Christopher gave a slight nod like he understood her question now. "Ruth started out in sin—separated from God—and her life was broken because of it." Christopher nodded to the screen with the PowerPoint slides on it, referencing one from earlier. "Then once she started following God and becoming close to him, she was blessed." He shrugged a bit. "It's like a real-life application of the times of how turning to God completely changes someone's life."

Daquiri stayed quiet as the speaker closed the talk with a prayer. She didn't bow her head and close her eyes like everyone else, instead glancing around at everyone else who was. Her eyes lingered on Christopher for a few moments. She'd really never pictured him as the praying type.

She dropped her gaze when the prayer ended and everyone started standing up and milling around again. She stayed in her seat, however, continuing to think. She looked up when Gypsy said her name.

"So what'd you think?" Gypsy asked enthusiastically. Almost every part of her was doing something—one foot tapping, one rocking back and forth, her hands playing with her hair, and her body swaying forward and back hyperly—like she was getting out all the fidgety-ness from having to sit still for so long.

Daquiri simply shrugged a bit. "It was interesting." She turned her head to look around, finally standing up. "Where do I go to get Fox?"

"Oh, you just go down the stairs and—" Gypsy broke off when another girl, presumably a friend, came up and asked her a question. Immediately distracted, she forgot to finish her directions.

"I can show you the kids' room."

Daquiri turned around to see Christopher, who had disappeared for a minute or two but was now apparently back.

Silently just giving him a nod, she followed him out of the main room (someone had referred to it as the 'sanctuary') and down some stairs. She was sort of glad someone had ended up showing her, because there were a few different halls down there that she would not have wanted to wander down of her own accord.

When they finally came to a loud room that sounded like a lot of kids laughing and yelling, Daquiri poked her head in to look for the familiar shock of red hair.

"Ri!"

Smiling, Daquiri knelt down as her brother ran over to her and hugged him. "How'd it go, buddy?"

"It was fun! We played games, and sang songs, and I won candy, and I got to be one of the wise men and wear this reeeally big robe!"

"Oh really?" she laughed. "You'll have to tell me all about it." Standing up, she took his hand and turned around. A bit surprised to see Christopher still standing there, she flashed him a small smile of thanks before heading back for the stairs with her brother. Fox was so caught up in telling her about all the kids he'd met that he didn't even notice as they passed his giant friend. Daquiri glanced down at him. "You ready for lunch now, bud?"

"Lunch!" Fox cheered in agreement. He bounced excitedly around Daquiri. "Can we go out to eat? Pleeeease?"

Daquiri smiled. "I'm not sure we can swing that today, Fox. Maybe another time." When Fox's expression started to form into a frown, she immediately forged on to hopefully distract him with something else. "But we're going shopping today, remember? You can help me pick out some new cereals you like."

Fox immediately brightened. "Can I get lots and lots?"

She laughed a bit. "We'll see, bud. C'mon, we should get home."

* * *

"Fox, would you slow _down?_ " Daquiri sped up her pace, but she didn't particularly feel like running after her brother. She adjusted the strap on her over-the-shoulder purse. "Fox, would you _please_ come here?" She held out her hand.

Her little brother galloped back over to her. He ignored her hand, but he at least stayed close to her on the sidewalk. For now.

"Are we gonna have to carry the bags _all_ the way back home?" Fox asked, his voice taking on a whine.

Daquiri's mouth twitched into an amused smile. "No, buddy, Arak is going to be picking us up, remember?"

"Oh." Fox brightened. "Good! Because walking SUCKS."

"Fox," Daquiri scolded, "please don't say that word."

"But all the kids at school say it!"

"Well I don't want _you_ saying it. We don't say those kinds of words in our house."

"But I hear Daddy say them all the time! Like 'dammit' and 'fu—"

" _FOX_ ," Daquiri snapped sharply, appalled. "I don't want you _ever_ repeating those words again. Do you hear me?"

Fox made a bit of sulky pout, though probably more because he didn't like being in trouble than because he wanted to keep saying the words. Or at least Daquiri hoped so.

"I said _do you hear me_ , Fox?"

"Yes," he mumbled.

Daquiri gave a slight sigh, not liking to yell at Fox any more than he liked being in trouble. "C'mon, buddy, we're almost there."

Her brother took her hand this time, though sullenly, and it didn't last very long. She watched him run ahead again, but she just kept her eye on him. Maybe if he got all his running out now, he wouldn't be as hyperactive at the store.

The sound of thunder startled her. She frowned up at the sky. Crap. She glanced down at the umbrella tucked under her arm. She'd brought it with her since the weather had called for rain, but she'd been hoping it would hold off until _after_ she and Fox were done with shopping. Or at least until they got to the store.

As it thundered again, Daquiri noticed a car pulling up near her on the side of the road. She immediately became wary, her thoughts going to the worst. It was kind of a habit.

"Fox," she called, her voice sharpening slightly again, though this time for a different reason. "Come over here."

It wasn't until the window of the car started rolling down that she realized the driver was actually someone she knew—Christopher.

Seriously, was the Universe convinced that they needed to see each other _everywhere_ outside of school?

"Hey," he said, leaning his arm on the side of the door. "Do you need a ride?"

Daquiri frowned, and she looked at him strangely. She thought about saying something like, "Excuse me?" but she wasn't sure she really wanted to answer. She still didn't know the boy very well, even though he was technically there a large majority of the time she was around Gyp and Sue.

Christopher must have read her look, because he clarified with, "Because of the rain."

"Oh." She felt kind of silly for thinking anything else, but all the same. She glanced at her umbrella, which, small as she was, she couldn't even be one hundred percent sure would keep her completely dry. She ran a hand through her hair. "Actually, um— _oof!_ " She let out a grunt when Fox suddenly ran into her in a hug. This kid. She put her arm around him.

Fox looked over at Christopher's car and suddenly got a very wide smile on his face. "Indy!" he exclaimed excitedly. "It's you!"

Christopher gave her little brother an amused smile. "It's me," he agreed. He looked back to Daquiri. "Did you want a lift then?"

She glanced up at the darkening sky. With Fox, she honestly couldn't risk the possibility of getting wet. At least she'd be able to _get_ to the grocery store without turning into a fish. When it thundered again, she quickly stepped forward. "Yes, please. C'mon, Fox," she said, taking her brother's hand and leading him around to the other side of the vehicle. After hurriedly making sure he was buckled in, she got in herself and quickly shut the door.

Looking up from buckling her own seatbelt, she eyed a raindrop that had fallen onto the windshield. She almost audibly sighed in relief.

"Where to?" Christopher asked her, glancing over in her direction as he put his car back in gear.

"Um, grocery store," she replied. "Arroyo's." She distractedly stared out the window, the rain having suddenly upgraded to pouring down in sheets. She hated to think what could have happened if Christopher hadn't shown up.

As much as she would've preferred it _not_ be Christopher...

She didn't realized until he turned the car around that the store was in the opposite direction of the way he'd been going, which for some reason embarrassed her a little. She hadn't meant to take him out of his way. She thought about apologizing for it, but decided just not to mention it. She shifted in her seat a bit and looked out the rainy window.

"So, um," she said after a few minutes of silence, "how come you can drive?"

He glanced over at her. "I have a license?" It came out more as a question, like he wasn't sure why he was being asked.

She frowned at him a bit. "When did you turn sixteen?"

Christopher made a noise like he understood more where the question came from now. "I have a late birthday. Started school a year later."

"Oh." She didn't know what to say after that, so she went back to being quiet and looking out the window.

* * *

"Daquiri?"

Daquiri was startled from her doze at the sound of her name. She didn't even remember being tired. She looked over at Christopher.

"We're here," he said.

"Right…" Daquiri replied slowly, frowning at the rainy windshield again. It was still coming down hard outside, and with the awkward transition from inside the car to outside of it with an umbrella, she wasn't sure if she could get out water-free. Maybe if she just got out _really_ slowly...

After a long pause of her thinking it over, Christopher spoke up again. "Are you okay?" he ventured.

Daquiri shook herself, quickly putting up a normal façade. "Yeah. Just don't really want to get wet." She tried to hide her anxiety, but she rolled her palms over her thighs, trying to think quickly.

Christopher didn't reply, but just looked out the window himself for a moment. He then suddenly took off the leather jacket he seemed to always be wearing and held it out to her.

Daquiri eyed it for a moment, then gave him an odd look.

"It'll be big, but you'll be dry." He bobbed his hand a bit in a 'take it' gesture.

The look, however, didn't leave her face. She wasn't sure how she felt about going into the store—or _anywhere_ for that matter—in the boy's coat. It felt a bit too...familiar.

"...what about you?" she finally said, stalling a bit.

Christopher just shrugged. "I don't mind getting wet."

She stared at the jacket a moment longer as he continued to hold it out to her, then glanced into the backseat at Fox. He was amusing himself with pushing the buttons on the door of the car, apparently not paying attention to the conversation in the front. That jacket _would_ ensure her staying dry much more than the umbrella would, and with the chance of her turning with Fox there…

She accepted the coat. "Thanks," she said quietly.

He just nodded at her and silently waited as she put it on.

She paused and looked over at him. "Should I just, um...give it back later?"

"Well, I figured I could just stick around," he said with a bit of a shrug. "I mean, it'll probably still be raining when you're done, I wouldn't want to strand you guys."

She frowned at that. "You don't have to do that. My brother is picking us up afterwards."

"No, you should!" Fox suddenly piped up excitedly from the back. "You can come shopping with us!"

"Fox," she started to say, but Christopher interrupted.

"I mean, I was thinking of at least coming in for a drink, anyway."

She paused. "I mean, sure. But feel free to leave after, we'll be fine."

Christopher merely nodded, and they both got out of his car, Daquiri much more carefully, of course. Letting out a breath through her nose, she shut her door after her and took Fox's hand to walk across the parking lot.

It was apparent Christopher fully intended to indeed just grab a drink and leave as soon as they got in, but Fox had other plans. As she pushed her cart into the first aisle, she glanced behind her to see her brother had somehow managed to drag the boy along after her.

She silently gave Christopher a look, and he just shrugged at her helplessly, glancing down at her brother who was tugging him along by the hand and chattering on incessantly.

Giving a slight roll of her eyes, she turned back around to assess her list. First was dairy…

She tried to mostly ignore Christopher as he followed along after her, but Fox was making it harder. Usually her brother would run around the aisle looking at things and asking her to buy a million other things—which she more often than not had to say no to—or would disappear down a different aisle for a moment to "scout ahead." Now, however, he apparently deemed Christopher to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and was ditching most of his usual antics to hover around him.

"Fox," she said, her voice taking on the stern tone she'd used to reprimand him earlier, "we don't climb on people. Leave Christopher alone."

Christopher, however, was chuckling a bit. "I really don't mind."

Her stern voice turned into a glare, which she turned towards him. "I'd rather you not encourage him."

That wiped the amused smile off of his face, and he slowly lowered his arm, which Fox was hanging from. Her brother whined for a moment, but then got distracted by something on a shelf and went bouncing off.

It was only several minutes later that Daquiri found the two at it again, with Fox dangling from Christopher's back this time, his arms around his neck.

"Fox, _please_ get down," she said again, holding back her voice from turning into a snap.

"But he lets me like Daddy does!" Fox protested, peeking out from behind Christopher's head.

Her head turned sharply at that. " _Down_ , Fox. Come here."

Christopher helped unlatch Fox's hands from around his neck and her brother slid off and scurried over to her. She ushered him along in front of her, turning her back to Christopher.

Fox rode on the front of her cart for a bit, up until something else caught his eye and he went off to check it out. Daquiri kept an eye on him out of her peripheral, but then got caught up trying to compare and add up prices. She frowned at her shopping list, trying to figure out how much left she had for everything else. Shopping always felt stressful this time of year…

Turning around to move onto the next aisle, she looked up to see Fox suddenly perched atop Christopher's shoulders. Daquiri raised her brows at them, another glare slowly forming.

Christopher was glancing up at Fox in the middle of saying something, but he stopped when he looked forward at her again. He gave her a bit of a sheepish half-smile, and Fox mirrored his guilty look.

Rolling her eyes with a huff, she gave up and continued onto the next aisle. At least she'd know where he was.

Daquiri's cart slowly filled with items, and she carefully noted down each price as she went along, keeping track of where she was. Christopher eventually fell in step beside her, Fox continuing to babble away on his shoulders with comments about every who, what and why, all mainly directed at his walking tree. Daquiri occasionally listened in on her brother's chatter, but she mainly stayed focused on what she was doing.

"So are you doing anything special for Christmas break?"

Daquiri glanced over at Christopher's question. She gave a small shrug. "Just spending time with family, I guess." She gestured at her cart. "Christmas dinner. I only get to stress about it once a year."

He gave her a bit of a smile at that.

She paused for a moment. "What about you?"

"Basically the same. Probably'll visit relatives."

She nodded a bit absently. "My dad was an only child, so we never really visit. And our grandparents are back in Oregon, so."

Christopher just nodded at that.

"That's Shelly!" Fox suddenly said excitedly, bouncing a bit from Christopher's shoulders. "Ri, can I go say hi?"

Looking over where a little blonde girl was standing nearby with her parents, Daquiri nodded in consent. "Go ahead, Fox."

Christopher let her brother down and he excitedly ran over to his school friend. Leaning on her cart, Daquiri watched him with a wisp of a smile when the girl greeted him warmly and with almost as much excitement.

"Get the wedding bells ready," Christopher remarked beside her.

Daquiri gave him an amused look. Glancing back over, she noticed the several toys poking out of the little girl's parents' cart, and her smile wavered a bit. She gave a small sigh.

"I wish I could get Fox more for Christmas."

She didn't realize what she was saying until the words had left her mouth. She blinked.

"I'm sorry," she apologized hastily, briefly glancing over at Christopher. "I don't know why I said that."

"Well, uh, you know." Daquiri looked over as Christopher spoke, not actually having expected him to respond to her spontaneously uncharacteristic wishful thinking. "Uh, Christmas is about family. It'll mean just as much to him whatever you get."

She studied him for a moment, assessing his words. She pursed her lips. "I'm not sure whether to call you out for sounding like a Christmas card or just being nice for once."

She was pretty sure he said something like 'either is probably fair,' but she couldn't completely vouch for it since it was mumbled.

She didn't say anything in return, and waited out the awkward exchange looking over her list for the gazillionth time until Fox came trotting back. He was soon back on Christopher's shoulders and they headed off to the cereal aisle.

Daquiri looked through different snacks, gauging between Fox's favorites for his school lunches while her brother chattered on to Christopher about his favorite cereal brands. This aisle happened to be Fox's favorite, next to the toys aisle. She didn't pay them much mind, leaving Christopher to his own devices.

Finally sorting through everything, she crossed a few more things off her list and started to look up at Christopher. "Alright, next there's just—"

She was interrupted by an older woman that toddled up and put a hand on Christopher's arm. Daquiri raised an eyebrow at her.

"I just wanted to say," she said, a blissful smile on her elderly face, "you two are the most _adorable_ couple."

The apparent couple both blinked.

Daquiri could feel her face burning red like it had been plunged into a tub of hot water. "I—" she started. "We're not—" Her protest came too late, however, as the lady waddled off, clearly delighted with her own observations of young love.

Daquiri stood there stunned. Her mouth opened, but she wasn't sure what to say, so she closed it again.

Fox, on the other hand, burst out laughing from atop Christopher's shoulders. "Did she think you guys were _dating?!_ "

Christopher rubbed his face in what appeared to be his own embarrassment, and Daquiri glanced from the over-sized jacket she was wearing (that was obviously not hers) to her quite-a-bit-younger brother from where he was on his perch.

She wasn't sure if the lady had meant just _dating_ …

Turning a shade redder, Daquiri hurriedly moved them all along to the next aisle.

* * *

It wasn't too much longer until they were checking out, with her brother finally back on the ground and giving Christopher a serious lecture on what candies were good and bad. She let Christopher keep Fox busy as she navigated her way around the front of the cart and up to the cashier.

"Hi, how are you today?" the girl behind the counter greeted, her voice unusually bubbly for someone who worked eight hours behind a cash register. Daquiri wondered if she was new.

"Good," she replied with a quick smile. She started to bag her own groceries as they came down the belt, Fox helping Christopher—or was it Christopher helping Fox?—put them onto the first belt. She went back up to pay once they'd all gone through.

"That'll be two-hundred-twelve and ninety-two cents!" the girl told her cheerily, looking at Daquiri with an expectant smile.

Daquiri paused, a bit taken off guard by the amount. She was sure she had added up all the prices correctly.

"Oh, um, just a second," she told the cashier apologetically, before rummaging through her purse. Maybe she had extra money in here somewhere…

Coming up blank, with only a few dollars in her wallet, she definitely didn't have enough for the almost thirteen extra dollars. Feeling herself flush from the embarrassing situation she'd somehow found herself in, she looked back up at the girl. "I guess I'm a bit short," she admitted. She scanned her items, her forehead crinkling in search for something that had messed with her carefully planned out list. With an inward sigh, she eyed several things that she definitely did _not_ remember putting into her cart. She picked them up and turned around.

"Fox," she said, looking to her little brother and holding up the items. Most of them were notably cereal boxes. "Did you put these in?"

Her brother glanced between her and Christopher. "Indy put them in!" he said quickly before ducking behind the cart.

Christopher gave the little boy a look.

Fox peeked back out. "...but I gave them to him?" he offered, if a bit guiltily.

Daquiri gave a small, actual sigh this time. "Sorry," she said, turning back to the cashier and putting the several boxes on the counter. "Can you take these off?" Her brother made a bit of a whining noise on the other side of the cart, but she ignored him. As much as it pained her, she couldn't just make money appear out of thin air.

"It's fine," Christopher suddenly interjected. Daquiri looked over at him to see him fishing his wallet out of his pocket. He stripped a twenty out of a wad of other bills and started to hand it to the cashier.

Daquiri grabbed his arm. "Christopher, you _don't_ have to do that," she told him quietly, muttering under her breath. She pushed his hand down with a frown, her eyes searing into his. "It's fine."

He frowned back at her. "It's not that big of a deal." Before she could stop him, he switched the hand the bill was in and handed it to the cashier anyway. Daquiri tried not to turn red again at seeing the girl from the register hiding her amusement as she made change after the added twenty. If her cheeks didn't blush from embarrassment, though, they probably darkened with anger.

She glared at Christopher as he put his wallet away. He gave her a quizzical look. "What?" he asked.

Scowling at him, she turned her back to bag the rest of her groceries. She didn't say anything to him as he silently helped put the last few bags back into the cart and then followed her to the exit doors.

Pausing outside of them, she dug back into her purse and pulled out a handful of change from her wallet. "Here, Fox," she said, bending down to her little brother, "why don't you go try to get something from the claw machine?"

Fox lit up at that. "Okay!" he said happily, grabbing the money and bouncing off through the doors.

Daquiri turned to Christopher then.

"Look," she said, her voice low and angry, "I do _not_ need your help. Drive me to the store, fine, whatever. But I can take care of myself _and_ my family and I do _not_ —" she took his hand and slapped the handful of change into it, "—need your charity." She folded his fingers over his palm and thrust the fist to his chest. "So just leave me alone."

She started to turn, then abruptly stopped again. She slipped off his jacket and shoved that at him too, giving him a glare along with it before taking her cart and briskly walking out through the exit doors.

She didn't get very far.

Aside from the fact that she couldn't have walked off without Fox anyway, it was also still raining fairly hard outside. She had to abruptly halt under the awning, even just to avoid the smattering of water against the pavement. She scowled out at it. Damn rain.

Tugging her phone out of her back pocket, she jerkily flipped it open to call Arak. She hoped he was here already.

The phone rang. And rang. And rang until it went to voicemail. Frowning, Daquiri hit end before immediately jabbing the call button again. Once again, it rang out. She stared at her phone for several moments before noticing the voicemail notification. Bringing it up, she clicked to listen to it.

" _Hey, Ri. It's Arak. Listen, I know I told you I'd pick you and Fox up from the store, but…well, they really needed me for a longer shift. I know you're gonna hate me, but my hands are sorta tied. I can't just walk out. So you're gonna have to find another ride, or maybe just have them hold the groceries for later. I dunno. I'm really sorry. I'll see you at home."_

Daquiri stood motionless, the phone still held to her ear while the automated voice asked her what she wanted to do with the message. She listened to it again, just to make sure she'd heard it right.

Arak wasn't picking them up.

She was stuck here.

With 200 dollars' worth of groceries.

In the rain.

Finally coming out of herself, Daquiri immediately went to call someone else on her phone…then realized the only people she had to call were Gyp or Sue. And they were both mermaids.

The only two people she could call on the entire damn planet were both effing mermaids.

Frustrated, she kicked her cart, which she immediately regretted for two reasons.

One, because _ow_ that effing hurt.

And two, because the store's patio she was on was slightly sloped, and her kick was just enough force to send her cart rolling right…into…the street.

She stared at it. Sitting there in the rain. Her umbrella was sticking out of the top.

Well, shit.

"Are you okay?"

Daquiri nearly jumped in surprise at hearing Christopher's voice again. Turning around, she saw him standing behind her. He was still holding his jacket.

"I—I'm fine," she said. She glanced to her cart, still in the street. "Just brilliant," she added in a mutter. She didn't want to ask _Christopher_ to get her cart, or take her home. Not after everything.

Unsure of what to do, she shifted her weight.

"Ri, look!" Fox came running up then, a blue and green elephant stuffed animal clasped in his hands. "Look what I won!"

As usual, her brother was the small ray of sunshine among all her dark clouds. She mustered up a smile. "Nice job, buddy!" She bent down next to him. "Wow, that's a good one. What are you gonna name it?"

While Fox spouted off several options, though, Daquiri looked up again at the rattling sound of a cart on pavement. It would appear Christopher had decided to retrieve her cart without even needing to be asked. What was with him and his damn chivalry?

"Is your brother on his way?" he asked as he stopped next to her with the cart.

She slowly stood back up. She wasn't sure whether there would even be a point in lying to him.

"He can't come anymore," she said, her voice on the quieter side.

"Oh." Christopher stayed silent for an almost awkwardly long pause. "Did you…need someone to drive you home then?"

Closing her eyes, Daquiri let out a long, quiet sigh. "Yes. Unfortunately, I do."

* * *

The drive with Christopher was mostly silent.

Mostly.

"So...what do you want for Christmas?"

Daquiri glanced over at him. She pursed her lips for several moments. Then she let a brief breath out through her nose. "There's not much of a place for wanting at my house." Leaning against the car door, she looked up at the rearview mirror, where she could see Fox engrossed in some comic book he'd had wadded up in his hoodie pocket. "Arak and I mainly just try to do as much as we can for Fox."

Christopher shrugged. "If you could get something, though."

She gave him a sidelong glance. "I honestly don't even think about it anymore. Fox is still a kid, and I'd much rather give him a good Christmas than have anything for myself."

Christopher huffed softly at her. "That doesn't mean you can't think up something you'd like anyway. Just for the thought of it."

Daquiri gave him a long look, even though he was keeping his eyes on the road. She narrowed her eyes slightly. "You could say I'm like the little girl from 'Miracle on 34th Street,'" she said slowly, her voice taking up a dry edge. "There's no point in saying, because what I want isn't possible."

He looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. "You do want something then, though?"

She rolled her eyes and looked away. "Nothing anyone could give me," she said, more under her breath than anything.

She found the way he kept glancing over at her to be very aggravating.

She gave an irritated sigh. "A day off, okay?" She leaned back against the passenger seat, crossing her arms and not quite looking at Christopher all the way. "I just want...a day without responsibilities. Where I don't have to think about anything. Not school, not home, not Fox…"

Daquiri winced as the last part came out of her mouth. She shook her head, suddenly angry with herself. "No, forget it," she muttered quietly. "It's a selfish thing for me to wish for. Fox, he's—he's the best thing in my life, and I'm not trying to wish him away or—"

"No, no, I know what you mean," Christopher said quickly. "There's nothing wrong with just wanting a quiet day."

"Yeah, well." Daquiri gave him a wan smile before looking down at her hands, now in her lap. "I guess there's a reason it's called wishful thinking."

Christopher didn't really say anything to that, leaving an awkward silence between them.

"So were we almost there?" he finally asked, as he'd been periodically following her directions throughout the drive.

Daquiri didn't say anything right away.

"Daquiri?"

"Um…yeah. It's going to be right up here." She paused. "Sunnyvale Parks," she muttered.

"Sorry?"

She cleared her throat. "Sunnyvale Parks," she said in a bit louder voice. She glanced at Christopher, but if the boy thought anything of it, he didn't show it. She quickly looked forward again.

"It's in here," she said, pointing to the left entrance coming up. "Go straight until you hit Blue Ridge then turn left. It'll be on your right."

Daquiri fell silent as Christopher's tires hit the gravel road of the neighborhood. Maybe it was just her, but she felt a sense of awkwardness pervade the car as they drove through the neighborhood of mobile homes. The technical term was "manufactured housing," but a good majority of the neighborhood went ahead and called it what it was—a trailer park. Earned mostly due to the various conditions of the homes within it. Daquiri resented the hot flush she could feel building under her skin as they passed house after house, many of which were unkempt enough to be considered near-dilapidated-looking with their dingy paneling and clutter-strewn front yards. Even amongst the neater houses, though, each was marked with patchy, sparse grass and dull, dreary-looking colors, and none of them had any real back yard to speak of, so the various toys and kiddy pools and miniature kid playsets were crammed in the small strips of space between each house. It all felt claustrophobic and…

Well. Poor.

"This one right here," she said quietly. "Just park on the street, please."

Christopher complied, putting the vehicle into park and turning it off. Without the usual hum of the engine, they sat in silence for a solid twenty, painful seconds.

"I can help take the groceries inside," Christopher finally said.

"No," Daquiri said immediately, to the point of being either rude or suspicious. "That's...that's alright," she amended. "You've already been a lot of help." She paused. "Thanks." She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the car door. "C'mon, Fox."

She began to unload the groceries onto the curb, and though Fox immediately bounced off to snatch up some toys that had been stored next to the front steps, Christopher got out to help empty the car after she'd only taken out a few bags. Neither of them said a word.

After the last bag had been set down, Daquiri turned to Christopher. No matter where she went, Daquiri always held her head high and wouldn't have let anyone think she was ever insecure about anything, but now she could hardly even look at Christopher. She mostly stared in the general direction of the ground.

"So I...guess I'll see you at school," she muttered. If it hadn't been for the pile of groceries she needed to carry inside, she would've fled to the cover of inside her house before the boy could make any sort of reply, but as it were, she stood there feeling incredibly awkward.

"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow." A pause. "Have a good night."

She mumbled something indistinguishable like 'you too.' Then, almost against her own volition, she quickly said, "Christopher," as he'd begun to turn around. She'd lifted a hand towards his arm, but quickly rescinded it as he looked back to her. "I…" she looked down again. "I'd…appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone where…where I live. Um…including Gyp and Sue." Her hand clasped at her other arm above her elbow, her fingers self-consciously running up and down it. "I just…I had her drop me off at the neighborhood over this morning, and I…" Embarrassed, she couldn't get herself to say anything further.

"It's fine. I won't mention it."

She briefly met his eyes. "Thank you." Then she promptly grabbed as many bags as she could and unceremoniously hurried off to her front steps. She heard the car start up again behind her as she was struggling to unlock her front door and get it open with her hands full. By the time she had managed to push it open and she glanced behind her, Christopher's car was trundling off back down the muddy dirt road.

She let out a long sigh. That had been possibly the most mortifying moment of her life.

She trudged back and forth from the curb to the kitchen for a good five minutes before finally getting everything inside, and she called for Fox to come in.

"Why don't you go and set up Legos in your room, bud," she told him as she started unbagging the items onto the counter. "I can help you build a mansion after I'm done."

"Okay!" Fox readily agreed before scurrying off to his and Arak's room.

A small smile came to her as she began putting all the dairy away into the fridge. This was why she made a point to always get her weekend homework done on Friday and Saturday.

Now if only Arak were home as well. She couldn't remember the last time he'd had a weekend free to spend time doing anything other than work. Not that home was that great of a place to be, but at least they could have spent more time together there…

She looked over at the sound of the front door opening. She frowned, momentarily confused until she saw her dad come around the corner, still in his cop uniform.

"Dad," she said, surprised, "you're home."

"Where were you this morning?"

She hadn't expected her dad to be home before six; he'd just barely missed Christopher dropping her off. Thank God. "I...took Fox out," she said, feeling weird about saying they'd gone to Gypsy's church. Also like maybe it wasn't such a great idea to mention it, all things considered.

Her dad frowned at that as he set his keys down on the island counter. "You went out to eat? Daquiri, you know we don't—"

"No, not out to eat," she interrupted quickly. "I got the Christmas groceries today," she added, trying to make her voice bright and distract from the original subject.

"If you didn't go out to eat, where did you go?"

She gave a pause. He clearly wasn't fooled by the diversion. But jeez, what was his deal with grilling her when he hadn't even been home two seconds… "Just...out," she finally answered vaguely. She continued putting the groceries away, avoiding looking in his direction. "Nothing important. Do you want some juice?" She held up the carton of orange juice she was putting away into the fridge.

"Daquiri. Why are you avoiding the question."

"I—I'm not. I just didn't think it was a big deal. Did you...want the juice? Or anything else?"

"Forget about the _damn juice,_ Daquiri!" She recoiled when the carton was snatched out of her hand and pitched aside. It hadn't been meant to hit her, but it might as well have; it had clearly broken open by the looks of orange juice leaking out of it. Money down the drain, just like that. She stared at it, but her dad grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards him forced her attention back to him. "Where the hell were you?!" her dad practically bellowed into her face.

She had to actively force herself not to tremble. "We—we just went to church," she said, her voice becoming slightly smaller, wondering if maybe it would've been better if she'd just told him in the first place.

She could have sworn she saw a vein bulge on her father's neck at the word 'church,' though. So maybe not. His voice suddenly becoming quiet was only more terrifying. "And you thought you could lie to me about it, did you?"

"No," she whispered. Her usual mask faltered, allowing fear to show through in her eyes as she stared into her dad's.

"Daddy? Ri?"

Daquiri let out a small gasp at her younger brother's voice, and she instinctively turned to go to him, but was roughly jerked back by her dad.

"D-Daddy?" Fear had reached into Fox's voice now. "Are you...h-hurting Ri?"

Oh God, how long had he been there? How much had he heard? He wasn't supposed to _see_ this… "Please let me go to him," she begged her dad quietly. "I—I'll come back. I promise."

Her father's grim face studied her for several long moments. Then he released her wrist. "Two minutes," was all he said.

It was all she could do to barely hold face as she hurried Fox to his room.

"You've gotta stay here, Fox, okay?" she said, her voice urgent and quiet as she knelt down in front of him. "Promise me?"

Her brother had a very unsure look on his face. He glanced over her shoulder like he was looking for their dad. "Is—is Daddy going to hurt you again?" he asked timidly.

"Daddy's just a little angry right now," she told him quietly, avoiding answering his question directly. "He really doesn't hurt me much at all, bud. See?" She held up her wrist, the one her father had grabbed. It was only a bit red. "Hardly anything at all. Nothing to worry about." She braved a small smile for him. "Everything's going to be fine. Promise me you'll stay in here, though, okay? Until I say so?"

Tears began to roll down Fox's cheeks. "But Ri..."

Daquiri hugged him close."Shh, sh," she urged immediately, stroking the back of his head. "It's okay. Everything will be alright." She swallowed thickly. "Just stay in here. You have to promise me."

"DAQUIRI!"

"Promise me," she said again quickly, holding Fox by both of his shoulders.

"I—I promise."

Quickly planting a kiss on his forehead, she stood up and shut Fox's door behind her as her dad yelled for her again. She took a shakily deep breath before heading back out to the kitchen. A part of her wondered if she could talk her dad down; he wasn't drunk or anything, after all. And it had really only been...a misunderstanding...

She stopped where the hallway met the living room, where her dad was, fitting one end of his belt through the buckle, shortening it to about half its length. Her mouth felt dry at the sight of it; the taste of pennies lingered in the back of her throat. Her father hadn't used the belt on her in...years. She hadn't missed it.

"Get over here," he said, his voice firm and commanding.

Any arguments she'd had immediately died on her lips, and she felt like a ten-year-old again as she walked over to her dad. She eyed the belt anxiously. "Dad…I—"

"Shut it," he snapped. "Bare your back."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Do I...have to take my shirt off?"

Her dad let out an irritated noise, his eyes briefly snapping up to the ceiling. "I'm in no mood for you wasting my time, Daquiri."

She took a nervous step back. "Dad, I'm not...little anymore. I—I've _grown_..."

"And I am still your _father_ ," he interrupted, sounding even angrier than before. "I am _punishing_ you. Nothing more. _Honestly,_ Daquiri."

Daquiri blushed hard, and it only served to deepen how humiliated she felt as she turned away and slowly lifted the back of her shirt over her head. She kept her arms through the shirt so it couldn't quite come off completely, arranging it in front of her so she was slightly more covered. Moving a bit awkwardly because of it, she gathered her long hair and dropped it out of the way over one shoulder, a part of her asking herself why she let him do this without a fight.

Even though she knew she didn't have any other real choice.

She gripped the edge of the island that divided the living room from the kitchen, trying to quiet her trembling hands while also bracing herself for the first blow.

"D-Dad," she spoke up, her voice sounding nervous even to her, "maybe...maybe we could, um, do this later...like...wh-when Fox isn't home, so he d-doesn't hear any—"

She broke off into a strangled gasp, struggling to muffle her cry for her brother's sake. Her knuckles went white as she clutched the counter tighter from the pain of the belt strike. She took a breath. "Please, if you could just wai— _ngh_." She shut her eyes tightly, trying to hold back the tears stinging at her eyes. The buckle had caught on her back that time.

"Keep talking and this will only go longer, Daquiri."

She fell into a resigned, painful silence.

And so it went on.

* * *

Daquiri glanced to her bedroom door when it opened, not particularly caring who it was at this point. Seeing it was Arak, though, her gaze fell back to the wall, at the spot she'd been staring at for nearly an hour now.

"Hey," he said, walking over to her bedside. "Are you still mad at me?"

She didn't even respond.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I tried to get them to let me go home, but they needed me."

Still, she didn't look at him. "Will you just go away, Arak," she said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Are you okay?" There was a frown in Arak's voice, and he sat down on the edge of her bed. "Did you—"

" _Don't_ —" Daquiri jerked back on reflex when he laid a hand on her leg, "…touch me." She curled herself up tighter, drawing her legs in so they inched away from her brother. "Please don't touch me," she repeated quietly, her voice miserable.

"Ri," Arak said, his voice alarmed. "Omigod, Ri, what—what happened?"

"You _weren't here_ , Arak. That's what happened."

"What the hell did he do, Ri?" Arak's voice was edging away from agitated and into angry territory.

"Why don't you just go find Fox?" she returned sharply, bitterness seeping into her voice. "God knows what he had to hear."

"Ri." Arak softened his voice back down. "Ri, c'mon. It's me. Please, just...tell me what happened."

Daquiri stayed still for several long moments, maybe minutes, there on her bed, lying on her stomach with her arms curled under her chest. It had been too painful to manage lying on her back.

It was also painful just trying to explain to Arak what had happened. A part of her felt too embarrassed, humiliated even, to describe it to him. It took an effort just to keep tears out of her eyes from thinking about it.

"Ri?"

She shut her eyes. "My back," she mumbled.

There was a pause. "Your...back?"

Daquiri only let out a shaking breath in response.

Arak seemed unsure of what to do with this answer. But after a minute, he tentatively put a hand on the small of her back. Daquiri tensed slightly, but didn't say anything or pull away. After some hesitation, Arak tentatively pulled back her shirt.

There was a stricken silence.

"He used the belt," she said quietly, unable to bear Arak not saying anything for any longer.

"That _bastard._ "

Daquiri peeked over at her brother; he had stood up, a look of absolute fury on his face

"I am going to kick his _ass_ ," he spat, turning on his heel and beginning to storm towards the door.

"Arak." Daquiri sat up, even though her back screamed at her in protest. "Please, can you just...stay?" Her voice wavered slightly.

Her brother looked back at her. He glanced to the door again, his hands clenching at his sides. Then with a sigh, he returned to the bed, sitting next to Daquiri and pulling her into a hug. His touch was gentle to her back.

She deflated against him, too tired of keeping up the façade that she was okay. She let out a very quiet, choked sob as she shut her eyes tight, tears leaking out of them. Arak quieted and murmured a few soothing words to her like she had for Fox only a couple hours ago. Whether or not she believed them either, though, they were still somehow comforting.

"I'm fine," she said after a few minutes, pulling away and wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. She took a slow breath in and out, trying to compose herself again.

"You're not fine," Arak countered, though more calmly than he'd been before. "You never—I mean, I haven't seen you...well. At least in a long time…"

Daquiri gave him a bit of a grim smile. "I'm not a fan of me crying, either."

"No, I didn't mean it like—"

"It's fine, Arak," she interrupted him quietly. "I was just…pulled back to a lot of old memories tonight. And it's just made me realize…" Her gaze trailed down to the floor. "Things have never really gotten that much better."

"What do you mean?" Looking back over at him, there was a slight frown on Arak's face. "I mean, not that nothing ever happens now, but…" Arak shut his eyes briefly. "Things were a whole lot worse the first few years."

Daquiri ran her hand up and down her arm. "I mean, in...that aspect, yes," she admitted. "But...even now, he hasn't _changed_. I mean, he's still beating me up over simple things like lying about church, and I don't—"

"Wait, _what?_ " Arak cut her off.

Daquiri side-glanced him with a puzzled look. "What?"

Arak was standing up again now. "He...he gave you _that_ —" he gestured to her, "—because—because you _lied_ to him about going to _church?_ "

Daquiri stared at him. "He...just got mad that I wasn't being honest," she said carefully, not entirely sure where Arak was coming from.

Arak abruptly turned around and headed for the door.

"Arak, please," she said, but he didn't listen to her this time. Unsure what else to do, she got up and followed him.

" _DAD!_ " Arak yelled, storming down the hallway. He stalked into the living room, where their dad was sitting on the couch with the news on. Their dad glanced over at him, looking slightly annoyed. Daquiri uneasily stopped at the edge of the room.

"What the _hell_ , Dad?" Arak snapped as he rounded the corner of the couch.

"Not now, Arak," their dad said dismissively, looking back to the TV.

"Like hell not now," her brother growled. Daquiri let out a short gasp when he threw a punch.

It was within an instant that their father caught up Arak's fist and twisted it as he abruptly stood up. Her brother let out a grunt, forced to bend over at an awkward angle.

"You think you can call the shots in this house?" their dad asked harshly, his voice immediately beginning to rise in volume. "Who the _hell_ do you think you are?!" When Arak attempted to wriggle out of their dad's grip, he was simply thrown to the ground. Daquiri covered her mouth, horrified, when Arak let out a pained groan from a kick.

"Dad, stop!" Daquiri rushed over into the room, forgetting her own aches and throwing caution out the window. "Just leave him alone!"

"Your brother—" Their dad gave Arak another harsh kick to the stomach when her brother tried to get up from the floor. He fell back down, curling into himself at the blow, the wind clearly knocked out of him. "Doesn't get punished nearly as much as he ought around here," their father continued in a growl.

"Ri," Arak said through gritted teeth. "Just go to my room. Stay with Fox."

" _No._ " Daquiri fell down to her knees next to Arak, resting a hand on the ground in front of him. She glared up at their father. "We _get it_ , okay? You're the boss. No one questions your authority here. Now will you just _let it go?_ "

She nearly expected the slap her dad gave her. "Get out of here!" he shouted, nearly spitting in her face.

Holding back the tears involuntarily stinging at her eyes from the pain, she quickly hauled Arak up to a near sitting position, putting his arm around her and helping him stand up. She hurriedly ushered him back to the hallway, barely daring to glance back at their dad.

Not wanting to scare Fox further, Daquiri brought Arak into her own room, closing the door behind her. Their little brother would be fine for now in his and Arak's room.

At this point, Arak was able to get himself over to her bed, where he sat down. She went over and sat next to him. "That was an idiotic thing to do," she said quietly.

"More fair if it doesn't all fall on you," he muttered, his hand still holding his stomach.

"You need ice on that." Daquiri stood up to go retrieve some from the kitchen, but Arak caught her wrist before she even took a step.

"Don't go out there," he said in a low voice. "I'm fine."

Daquiri thought about going anyway, but then figured Arak was probably right. If their dad was still out there, she doubted he'd care to see her back again.

"You should've known you couldn't fight him," she scolded her brother softly as she sat back down. "It was only going to lead to something like this."

"I still would've liked the satisfaction of at least landing one punch," Arak half mumbled. "He just _had_ to be a cop. Damn him."

Daquiri stayed silent for a few moments. "Thanks anyway."

Arak glanced at her. "I wasn't supposed to let him hit you again." He scowled, seemingly at himself as he turned his head away. "Why did I have to end up so damn _useless_."

"Hey," Daquiri said immediately, her tone slightly sharper. "Don't let him make you think you're useless. You're not."

"I can't even protect _you_ ," Arak snapped. "I've _never_ been able to protect you from him. I'm always either too small, or not here, or not strong enough, or—"

" _Hey_ ," Daquiri interrupted him. "Stop it." She laid a hand on his leg. "You are the _only_ one who gets it. And the only one who's actually there for me. And not just that. You work _so_ hard, every day, and make sure we always have enough. You had to grow up faster than anyone, and in my opinion, that makes you bigger and stronger than anyone I know."

Looking over at her, Arak put an arm around her and pulled her close. "I think it's clear which one of us has grown up the most," he murmured.

A smile briefly tugged at her mouth and she wrapped both arms around her brother, curling her legs up onto the bed. "I shouldn't have gotten upset at you this morning for always working. I know how important it is for you to have a job."

"And I do wish I could spend more time with you and Fox," Arak countered. "I'm sorry you're always the one left taking care of him."

"I don't mind." Daquiri gave a brief snort. "He's basically the best friend I have at this point."

Arak chuckled a bit. "Well, I'm glad you at least have friends your own age for a change."

Daquiri made a face. "Sort of."

Arak looked down at her. "Sort of?"

"It's...complicated."

That made Arak actually laugh. "Look at you being a normal teenager with normal teenage problems."

Daquiri elbowed him. "Ugh."

Continuing to laugh, her brother poked at her ticklish spots, which she vainly tried to evade.

"Arak, _again_ with the tickling!" she complained, trying to shove him away with her elbow. She abruptly stopped when Arak gave a grunt.

"I'm fine," he said quickly when he saw how she was looking at him. "It's barely even bruising, honestly. You've endured much worse."

Daquiri had sobered again despite the brief light-hearted moment. She slid herself further onto her bed, carefully easing herself back down onto her side. "You won't be saying that tomorrow."

Her brother maneuvered himself down to lie next to her on her bed. "I'd rather not think about tomorrow. Just tonight is fine."

Daquiri moved closer to Arak, resting her chin on his shoulder. "Do you think it'll ever stop?"

Arak didn't respond right away. He let out a slow sigh. "I hope so." He looked over at her. "I don't want you to have to be alone with it all next year." He hesitated. "Part of me thinks I shouldn't go away to college—"

"No," Daquiri interjected, propping herself up on an elbow. "I won't let you give up college for me. It's the only way you'll get out of here for good." She gave a determined look. "I can deal with Dad. But at least _one of us_ has to get out."

Sitting up a bit himself, Arak looked at her steadily for a few moments. He reached over and gave her arm a squeeze. "We'll both get out. And we _will_ change our lives. And by the time you graduate, hopefully I'll be in a good enough place to try and get custody of Fox. Then we'll really be rid of him for good."

Laying back down, Daquiri sighed up to the ceiling. "I hope so."

* * *

 **A/N:** Are you sad yet? Hopefully the answer is yes, because that was sorta the point. I promise the next chapter will be more light-hearted. I think the next few are, actually...16 is gonna be fun, guys. Be excited for 16. Thank you to everyone who has read on to this point, and especially to those who have commented and followed me and my story! I honestly enjoy writing this story so much, and it makes me so happy to know there are others who also get some sort of amusement out of reading it. Have a great day, everyone.

Ceru out.

P.S. I've been typing this entire outro with my cat laying on my arms and half the keyboard.


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